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2010: A Grace Odyssey
by Thom Hunter 
http://thomhunter.com/
I will always be one who looks back. Out of my past, with all its levels of conjured contentedness concealed between cushions of deceit, I draw myemotion. In the losses, I find my determination. In the pain, I uncover energyto search for the truth of healing. In the regret, I discover grace. Out of thestupidity of ill-conceived actions and words, I hunger for wisdom. In the layersof the past, I see the unfolding of the future.On some days, it is as if I am still there; on others it is as if I never was. Suchis an Odyssey of Grace, a clumsy reconciling of sin and shame with healingand forgiveness, a digging out from beneath the weight of hate and sorrowinto the light of love and acceptance.Grace.
 
It really is not the closing of a year that makes the difference, no matter whatwe say or wish. Turning a page on a calendar has about as much impact asthe breeze created by the action. If we are here today and gone tomorrow; if we cannot add a single breath, then what does one day mean? Nothing . . .and everything.It depends who holds the day. In my hands, grasped tightly and held againstmy chest beneath my darting and suspicious eyes, a day is a like a waddedand blank sheet of paper. In God's hands, open and exposed to Hispenmanship, a day is a treasure unmatched. Its promise flows upon the page.It is good and it stands as His great invention of time. It counts. Just as Hecounted them in the beginning:
 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness He called “night.” And there was evening, and therewas morning—the first day. -- Genesis 1:3
And He just kept counting them.Day Two: He separated the waters and made the sky.Day Three: He made land and seas and plants and trees.Day Four: He made the stars and the sun and the moon.Day Five: He filled the oceans and the skies with just the right creatures.Day Six: He created a man and a woman, and He said: "It was very good."Nighty-night. You guys sleep tight beneath that brand new moon I just madeand I'll wake you in the morning with the glory of a brand new sun.And here we are, a debatable number of new days later, on an odyssey tomake the best and get the most out of however many He has ordained us.Each breath is by the grace of God.In retrospect, glancing over our shoulders, if we have embraced grace, a year is not quite the frightful thing it appeared when it was building furiously on thehorizon and bearing down upon us with its thunderous claps of "what ifs" andits threat to deliver upon us everything we so richly deserve. In retrospect, we
 
can see in what we thought would just be wreckage, the underpinnings of our prayers and the glorious glue of . . . grace. Somehow, despite us, the year theLord made is there, nicked and scratched and torn and bent by our handling,but surviving still for the times we stopped, perhaps sobbing, and handed itback, like a child who too roughly played with a favorite toy."I'm sorry," we say. "Can it be fixed?"And, in His way and in His time, He mends and restores and replenishes,leaving here and there a tear, a scar, to remind us of the roughness withwhich we treat his gift of each new day.Grace.Don't leave home without it.I began 2010 with these words: "I'm fine."Fine? Despite the harsh realities of reaping. I was entering another year stillseparated from my children, some past church issues still unsettled, my not-quite-completely-resolved mind stubbornly challenging my clearly-resolvedsoul for clarity and purpose. Add to that lack of clarity a blurred vision for myfuture as a provider and my place as a servant. But I'm okay, I declared. Or,
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Totaf

'Let your when be now' ...... Awesome! Great 'piece' Thomas. Thank you for sharing. Abundant blessing.

reply01 / 06 / 2011
Totaf

Where indeed? In one of those 'dark and awful cells in Giant Despair's castle most probably? Shalom cherished brother.

01 / 06 / 2011
Thomasthefree

Totaf . . . thank you very much. Your comments are always so encouraging. Where would we be without grace?

01 / 06 / 2011
Thomasthefree

Totaf . . . thank you very much. Your comments are always very encouraging. Where would be without grace?

01 / 06 / 2011
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