Unbuttoned: The Soulful Work of Abiding

We unbutton a soul, because we know what we are made of.

Underneath – grace in abundance to cover the shortcomings, imperfections, and flaws.  Underneath – the truth, the vulnerable, the grit.

    

Every woman has a backstory…just like you.  It’s so easy to be those people; when we compare our unraveled and threadbare against the backdrop of someone’s finest and best.  Stop comparing your insides to their outsides.  And, even when we know comparison is the thief of joy, oh my, how tempting it is to fall prey to the wasteland of yardsticks.

 

Swapping laundry.   I glance up to see the slip of paper on which I scribbled this verse …I recite to myself, in the recesses of my heart, John 1 vs 14  “full of grace and truth.”  Several hours later, in the midst of wrestling one to their nap, I am reminded of the verse that follows shortly thereafter -- John 1:16 which is posted on our fridge this week.  {Yes.  The namesake chosen here.}  “For of His fullness, we have all received grace upon grace.” Both the pinnacle in this text and the pinnacle in the walk of the redeemed.

 

Grace wins out.  Favor bestowed on undeserving people.  It isn’t about us but about Him.  His character.  Accumulated grace—“grace upon grace” – unlimited and fully sufficient.

Making lunch. Wiping little noses.  Folding laundry.

 

When the mutiny of the mundane is rising up within us ~ within me.  When we unbutton a soul and find that which is simply ordinary… how is one to decipher that which is mindless work from that which is soulful work?

Popping dinner in the oven.  Changing a little one’s unders.  Cleaning the counter for the fifteenth time today.  The answer isn’t always a change in scenery - picking you up and plopping you some other place - to make the underneath extraordinary; the answer is abiding.  Abiding more sincerely, more intently, more deeply.  Right where we are.  Wherever we are.  Because, if we’re abiding, our insides will be radiating Him whom we represent and that, my friends, is anything but ordinary.  

Blessings to you, from the fullness of His grace.