But For God: A Message About Grace

Throughout the six months of our time as an engaged couple, we made lots of plans, as any couple does.  We talked about a myriad of things…there seemed to be endless possibilities.  We prayed equally as much as we talked and it became important to us both to not plan a wedding so much, as to plan a marriage.  

If you know much about us, you know in the game of averages, we typically lose.  Our engagement was sort of the jumping off point of that for us…  We had to have the invitations re-done several times because the company kept mis-spelling names, common words, and missing punctuation.  I ordered *THE* wedding dress but, instead, a different dress was shipped and they had “discontinued” my dress.  There was a scissor lift (the bigger cousin of a fork lift) in the reception hall…  I cried some, but mostly I joked that the Lord was just making sure I was, in fact, committed.  Despite these superficial hiccups, the truth of the matter was that we had prayed, envisioned, and planned for this pristine, exciting, fulfilling, and touched life.

Insert REAL LIFE here…

The honeymoon was a disaster and it really only started to improve the day we came home.  I won’t bore you with the details, but suffice it to say, “Ugh.”  Once home, we both jumped back into our respective work routines waiting for the planned for and prayed for life to start unfolding. 

Fast Forward 8 years…

Our first child passed away.  Two siblings to the first baby, one right after the other.  Two babies in diapers.  Adam working out of town most days. And here we were about to enter our typical evening routine {read: chaos}.  Figuring out what ingredients we had that we could throw together to make an actual meal.  Sawyer begging for bites, Addison squawking in disapproval that no one was holding her, the TV was too loud, the floor had crumbs, and the lost sock count was steadily climbing with every load of laundry.

I winced.

Sometime in the days leading up to this particular, yet typical evening routine, I had gone and sat with a woman.  A Godly woman. Her husband, a stalwart of the faith: a genuine, kind, humble man…a dying man.  I didn’t know her all too well but I had an assured conviction that going to be with her was the right thing to do.  As we sat, she began to speak.  She told me of days gone by…when she was just a girl.  How they met.  When they started dating.  Their wedding.  She smiled when spoke about having each of their children.  She told me the stuff of life: of love, laughter, trying times.  She spoke to me of the faithfulness of the Father.  The surety of His sovereignty, mercy, and grace.  Tears welled in my eyes as I fought to sallow the lump in my throat. 

As I made my way to the car, digging for my keys, I thought to myself, “when did our earnest prayers regarding our marriage become so muddied?”  We had let the details of life … schedules … work … chores … press us down.  How life wears at a man. 

And yet.  Somehow in the somber moments; the dire and the desperate…we are able to see Christ more clearly. 

Just days after his passing, I heard this wife turned window, speak of His faithfulness all the more.  That just in the hours that separated her from him, she learned more of God through His grace and mercy, than she could have learned in any other way. 

It’s sort of cliché, isn’t it?  What with all the Christian dictums about calling on God only when times are tough.  But in the walk of the redeemed, there is no season better than the present, regardless of our circumstances, to be living on His sufficiency.  Whether in joy.  In grief. In muck and mire.  In all the stuff of life. 

But for God. 

Scripture says His strength is perfected in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).  The Christian life is relying each moment on the grace of God to lead, enable, and sustain.  Because you see, this story isn’t really about our marriage.  And it really isn’t even about this sweet woman who lost her husband.  It’s about the Lord.  His redeeming love, hope, and comfort.  His free gift of salvation to those who would believe.  Because, as the Lord would have it, we are called to be in this world.  And the world?  It’s full of troubles, fallen-ness, death, and despair. Trouble defines life.  Be it for the believer or the wayward.  And grace?  It’s God’s divine favor on those who deserve His wrath.  And so? Grace is power that transforms us.  John MacArthur says it like this: “You have to look at grace as a force, a divine force that God pours out into the lives of His people at all points to grant them all that they need to be all that He desires.”

So we know that in this life, we will inevitably encounter troubles and loss.  In the somber moments…the dire and the desperate.  But take courage, beloved, because The One has overcome.

~From the Fullness of His Grace~

“In the world you will have trouble, but be of good courage; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33