My former Sunday School teacher & friend, Leigh McLeroy, is a prolific author & inspires me with her "Wednesday Words". In addition to writing books & being on a speaking circuit, she writes a weekly email/blog called Wednesday Words, which you can sign up for (for free - CLICK HERE to sign up) and have emailed right to your inbox. I wish you could all meet Leigh like I have, and you would hear her sweet, kind & gentle voice in all of her posts, but without even knowing her you can and will be blessed by her weekly email. She is so REAL and every week reminds me just of what I need to hear... funny how the Lord works like that! I encourage you to sign up and be encouraged by her. See this week's email below. - Kristi
Of grackles and grace
May 25, 2011
A sleek, golden-eyed blackbird scurried in front of my car as I pulled into the drive, hustling out of harm's way with iridescent wings flapping furiously. We "missed" each other, but not by much. "Why don't you fly, you silly old thing?" I wondered. Flying would be so much simpler and more efficient than the awkward, evasive movement he employed. I mean, the bird
had a pair of shimmering wings for a reason!
He reminded me of me.
Of the bluster and "flapping about" I do on a rather regular basis to try and keep safe from the threat of sin and live a life worthy of Christ. As if I could do that for myself!
"Morality," said C. S. Lewis, "is a mountain which we cannot climb by our own efforts; and if we could we should only perish in the ice and unbreathable air of the summit, lacking those wings with which the rest of the journey has to be accomplished. For it is from there that the real ascent begins. The ropes and axes are "done away" and the rest is a matter of flying."
My grackle-friend was made to fly...to be gracefully airborne, not nervously earth-bound. He had within him the stuff he needed to ride the cool lift of a current of air. So it's easy for me to see (and to say) that he should have been using it.
But it's harder to understand that in the same way, I have what I need to live the Christ-life in the person and power of Christ himself. Yet instead of relying on him to get me where I long to go, I pull out the "ropes and axes" of self-effort as if to drag myself along to glory by the agonizing, ugly inch.
When, oh when, will I learn for good that the grace that saved me is the grace that sustains me, and will indeed become the very "grace that leads me home."
Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? Have you suffered so much for nothing--if it really was for nothing? Does God give you his spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard? (Galatians 3-5 NIV)
