Action De Grace

With Thanksgiving behind us and Christmas looming just ahead, I am hoping to remove distraction and find more time for reflection.  Not an easy task this time of year but still very necessary.  Things are changing rapidly around me and as life begins to pick up speed, now is the time for me to "be still and know God."

The meaning of Advent is a coming into place, view, or being; arrival.  This is especially significant to me this year because I am entering into a new phase of life.  The original Advent season was full of exciting anticipation which parallels the way I see my own new year to come.  The people were awaiting a gift from God - one that had been promised for generations.  The logistics of that gift coming along did not appear realistic but nonetheless, it was promised and it came to be.  I feel the same about what is happening in my own life.

The French meaning of Thanksgiving is action de grace.  Is it any wonder that Thanksgiving comes before Christmas?  It is a time to prepare our hearts for the greatest gift of grace there ever was!  We celebrate all the ways we are blessed just before we celebrate the arrival of our greatest blessing.

It has been heavy on my heart this last month that gratitude should come naturally to me and be practiced continually - not given focus just during a specific season of the year.  There are two themes that have developed over the last year for me:  love and gratitude.  They go hand in hand.  Without love, we would not experience thankfulness and without the ability to be thankful, we would not recognize when we are loved.  We must be able to to experience these in order to gain the full effect of God's provision and live out His purpose.  It is far too easy to forget the ways God loves us but if we are able to live Thanksgiving (action de grace) year round, we can't help but see evidence daily that we are held close to His heart.

Thanksgiving (action de grace) goes far beyond gratitude.  It must be acted upon - in other words, paid forward.  The giving part is my focus this year but I want it to extend beyond Christmas and I hope to be financially comfortable enough to engage in some random good deeds here and there.  It is most fun when remaining anonymous.  The dollar amount of the gift is not important - it's the heart of the giver that matters.  When you give out of love, the gift is precious no matter how big or small.  Whether tangible or intangible - if done out of gratitude, a gift can be the gateway to something even more valuable - it can be a glimpse of Christ for the receiver.

So - as I journey towards the things I've wanted most in life and I see them come to pass along the way, I will be reminded just how much God loves me.  In addition to being awestruck by it, I want to put into action and pay forward some of that love.  He has held me and protected me, healed me and empowered me over the last year and my hope is that somehow I can encourage others to see my source of strength and help them find it too.

In the words of Anne Voskamp:
When grace rescues you, then giving thanks is the responding action.
When grace delivers you, then action defines you. 
When grace takes you in right where you are, then you act out your gratitude wherever you are.
Random acts of kindness are the action plan of God’s people.
Thanksgiving is action de grace in French —  and after Thanksgiving comes Christmas and after grace comes action, and we don’t occasionally give thanks to feel good but we live thanks to routinely do good.

The Best

It occurred to me today that I have discovered what seasoned writers, artists and musicians have known for centuries.  Intense emotion inspires creativity.  For some, happiness is their greatest muse and others are spurred by sad events in their lives. Even anger can bring forth passionate works of art!  And although I don't consider my blogging an art form, I do notice that in my more emotional moments, my writing becomes more creative in nature - sometimes almost poetic and other times more rhythmic depending on what I'm going through.  Lately, however - I want to be poetic and I'm not - heck - I just want to have words to write and I just can't find them.  As for the emotion - it's there.  It's there like its never been before, with an intensity that I've never felt and yet I'm unable to express it.  Weird.

I wonder if perhaps I have used words to comfort myself in the past and no longer need that comfort?

Was that a control issue?  Was it a means of searching?

When I was unhappy I needed those words to be able to describe where I was and where I wanted to be.  Now that I am happy, I have no need for words.  I am just happy.  How many ways do you need to describe that?  Seriously, my worries are few and of the few, they are so trivial they are not worth mentioning.  At one time, my ability to be content was questioned.  Well looky here - I think I found the mysterious place of contentment.  Weird.

And yet at times I still question how I got here.  There is only one way.  Why question it?  When I look to God for guidance and learn to be in His presence, He provides.  It's as simple as that.  When I try to do it myself, life begins to suck.  It's all about trust and relationship.  I am inadequate but HE is everything!

He loves us so much.  He wants to give us His best. God's best is better than you can imagine - take it from me, I know.  It may have taken me half a lifetime to figure it out, but I'm glad I finally did.  The future has never looked so bright.  As Robert Browning said, "The best is yet to be!"

Psalm 71:20
Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again;
from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up.

Peaceful Anticipation

So yeah.....  apparently this is my place for emotional purging and it appears that I must be a recovering bulemic blogger because it's been a long time since I have felt the need to write.  Is that a good thing?  Perhaps.....

On the one hand, it is incredibly refreshing to be off the roller coaster of despair and excitement.  It is nice to just coast for awhile on the straight and narrow.   Yet on the other,  I fear that the lack of expression could cause my creativity to decline and that is an important aspect of my personality.  Perhaps I am learning to express myself in new ways.

What I am beginning to see is the end of a chapter in my life - closing in on the final pages.  It is bittersweet as several doors have closed but new, beautiful windows are beginning to open.  The change is welcome but still brings about some quiet apprehension mixed with anxious excitement. It is very difficult for me to prohibit myself from skipping to the last page and rush the ending.  I know that I need to savor every precious morsel of new beginning that I can, but it requires restraint not to head straight for the dessert.

If I could only explain how incredibly blessed I feel !!!!  I spent so many months feeling dejected and alone but seeking all the ways God loves me.  I found them finally and then He blessed me even more!  Funny how He works that way.  Just when you realize how good you have it, it gets even better.  I'm going to do my best not to grumble any more about the little things and look for good in every situation - even those very dark days because those are the times we are shaped and molded into His likeness to become the hope that so many seek. 

However - in spite of the peace and calm I am feeling now, a girl just tends to worry a bit and this is what came across my desk this morning.  Two points of scripture that show again just how much God loves us:

5 Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don't try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he's the one who will keep you on track. Don't assume that you know it all. Run to God! Run from evil! Your body will glow with health, your very bones will vibrate with life! Honor God with everything you own; give him the first and the best. Your barns will burst, your wine vats will brim over. But don't, dear friend, resent God's discipline; don't sulk under his loving correction. It's the child he loves that god corrects; a father's delight is behind all this.6 Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he's the one who will keep you on track.   (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Philippians 4:7

7 Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.