The Grace Narrative

Moving from one stage of life to the next isn't the only time we experience transitions. Things change. All of the time! That is very important to acknowledge. And I'm going to give you a shot of grace right now with this next statement: Are you ready? Change is quick. Transition is slow. Isn't that powerful. The grace in that truth ministers to me so much. We talk about what living in that grace looks like in today's episode.

Back to school time has us thinking about the teachers and students in our lives. Prayer is the most important preparation we can offer them. But we are all scholars in pursuit of the Lord. Even if you've been following the Lord for decades, He still has things He wants to teach you. I hope you'll open up to being a learner, to putting greater trust in Him, and accepting the grace He offers as you grow in His image.

We've in a series right now of exploring the liturgies found in "Every Moment Holy" by Douglas McKelvey. Today's liturgy is a great follow up to the time we spent on stewardship in the last episode. The prayer shared in this episode called "A Liturgy Before Shopping" is a little longer than the others, so I'm going to let the prayer speak for itself. And it surely will.

I've decided to make July the month where I value the small moments- the daily tasks- and recognize the sacredness of them. Reading "Every Moment Holy" by Douglas McKelvey has been an inspiration for me to that end.

In this episode, we are going to be focusing on the stewardship of tasks-particularly as it relates to domestic tasks. I've been leaning into having a greater Biblical understanding of stewardship in my whole life, so I want to unpack that a bit and share it with you.

The average person living today has more access to greater amounts of information than ever before in the history of the world. It truly is a flood of information. At times, that's an advantage. But often there's tension and overwhelm, too - sometimes even outweighing the advantages. I think it's because were not created to actually bear the burden of all of this information. In this episode, I'll be sharing a prayer called, "A Liturgy for Those Flooded by Too Much Information" from Every Moment Holy (Vol. 1) by Douglas McKelvey in hopes that it will remind you that grace is available to turn the mundane and sometimes overwhelming grind into sacred moments.

In John chapter 15, Jesus explains some of the beautiful realities of the Christ follower - asking for and receiving from the Father, being named as Jesus' friends rather than His servants, along with joy, abiding, and bearing fruit. But there is another reality He talks about in that chapter that isn't as attractive to most of us, and that is pruning. No one relishes the thought of being cut! The Lord has been working on me to deepen my understanding of pruning. In this episode, we talk about why pruning can be included in the list of beautiful realities as we abide and grow in Christ.

Today we are going to talk about what I would classify as a huge reframe that starts with your relationship with yourself and it ripples out into your relationships with others. It's so big I would categorize it as a paradigm shift. We are going to close out this summer series on refreshing reframes in this episode by discussing how to "try softer" as we deal with our inner critic.

Specifically today we are going to talk about our focus as we plan how we'll spend these next few months with those closest to us. "This doesn't have to be memorable, it just needs to matter." That mindset shift frees me to enjoy connecting with my people without the pressure to go big or go home when I make plans. It's not about counting the days when great memories were made; it's about making the days count in how we love our people.

Don't you just love that word- ABUNDANCE? It's this idea of having plenty, of prospering, of thriving, basically- and who doesn't want that?! I've been fascinated with this concept for a while now and while I still have questions and more to understand, I thought I'd use this example of how having a keyword can inspire a rhythm of staying connected to God's Word throughout a typical day.