“How am I going to answer their question about my GPA?” the college senior sighed. As his job interview drew steadily nearer, Ben1 now fretted openly about his good-but-not-great transcript. “Just turn the negative into a positive,” chimed my wife Peggy, optimistically. “How am I going to do that?” he skeptically rejoined. “Just tell him since you played college sports and worked full time while also taking a full class load, you weren’t always able to adequately prepare for exams. A better demonstration is that you passed three CPA exams on your first try and since passed the last one.” It was Ben who broke the silence that ensued, “Can you say that again? I want to write that down.”
Sometimes we let our apparent situation — and the past experiences that led us there — define who we are and obscure our trust in God. Absent understanding, doubt stymies confidence, perhaps, or despair stifles hope. But how many times must God redeem our past before we rest in Him today and trust Him for tomorrow? When Joseph’s brothers feared his retribution for their mistreatment of him, he pointed them to God’s larger purpose: “You intended to harm me,” he said, “but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”2 And when Jesus’ disciples saw Him walking on the water toward them, they cried out in fear. “But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.’”3 We regard circumstances in our finite way, but God rules over them in Sovereignty and ultimately for His glory. “And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’”4
How has God acted in your life? How has He turned your failures into His glory? When you look back today, can you see His ongoing transformational work in you? If so, is He not praiseworthy? Remember where you were when God met you, chose you, called you, drew you, saved you, liberated you, and raised you from death to life. What does His action speak to us — perpetual blame and condemnation, or eternal acceptance as His adopted sons and daughters? In His great mercy, God turns our negatives into His positives. For “we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”5
Say that again; write that down.
Epilogue. When asked about his GPA in the interview, Ben replied with his readied response. “That’s a really good answer,” marveled his questioner. Ben got the job.
Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!6 In Christ we pray. Amen.
1 This name is changed for privacy purposes.
2 Genesis 50:20 NIV
3 Matthew 14:27 ESV
4 Matthew 14:33 ESV
5 Romans 8:28 NASB
6 Psalm 139:23-24 ESV
Categories
A Morsel of Bread and a Sip of Wine
For two people in my life, both of whom have passed on from here, I keep a token remembrance. A small screwdriver that once belonged to my father now dangles from my keyring wherever I go. It is tempered steel, much like my childhood image of my dad. It is useful to me as it was to him, and it often brings him to mind. On our bedroom wall hangs a watercolor painting that my mother began but never finished. Its feminine flair captures her elegance, and its simplicity displays her quiet confidence and subtle taste. It reflects her as much as any self-portrait could, or so it seems to me.
Of all the reminders Jesus could have left behind, vast or simple, He specifically chose these: a loaf of bread and a cup of wine. In what would be His “last supper” here on Earth, Jesus gave bread to His disciples, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”1 He then offered them wine, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”2 So what might a morsel of bread and a sip of wine — this body and blood — speak to us as we partake of them together as the people of Christ?
God engages us at great length. He made us in His image, then came to us in ours. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . All things were made through him . . . And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”3
God acts with great purpose. “When the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children.”4
God loves us at great cost. “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”5
God lives in us forever. “If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.”6
God purifies us completely. In Levitucus God declared, “The life of a creature is in the blood . . . it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.”7 Not just any blood, but only that of the Creator — “the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.”8
Yes, Lord. Thank You for the bread and the wine, Your body and blood. We remember; we believe; we partake. For in Christ we live, and in Him we pray. Amen.
1 Luke 22:19 ESV (emphasis added)
2 1 Corinthians 11:25 ESV (emphasis added)
3 John 1:1-3, 14 ESV
4 Galatians 4:4-5 NLT
5 1 John 4:10 NIV
6 1 John 4:15
7 Leviticus 17:11 NIV
8 1 John 1:7 NIV
Categories
Dance with the One Who Brung Ya
“You gotta dance with the one who brung ya” — so goes the American adage, a swig from the little brown jug of hillbilly parlance. It means to remain loyal to the people or principles that supported us in the past and led to our wellbeing in the present. It esteems integrity over indifference, confidence over doubt, and gratitude over exploitation. Yet we repeat this backwoods gem for a reason: the temptation not to heed it.
It was faith in Jesus Christ, as proclaimed by Paul, that brung the Galatian believers to the “dance” of the Spirit. They had welcomed the apostle “as if [he] were an angel of God,”1 and through Paul’s message, “the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear to [them] as if {they] had seen a picture of his death on the cross.”2 They believed the good news of the Christ and received in themselves the Spirit of God. But as if in a race — or in this case, a dance — others “cut in”3 on them, an infiltration of those diabolically arguing the need to continue following the ceremonial laws of Moses. The Galatians cowed in fear to the falsehood, and their oppression showed: “What has happened to all your joy?”4 observed Paul. He had brung ‘em to the gospel, but now they danced with the law. So Paul chided them, and for their own good: “Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? . . . After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? . . . Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?”5
Legalism would still today “cut in” on our glorious dance with freedom. We no longer feel compelled to follow Old Testament ceremonial laws, certainly, but what about our fleshy demands regarding dress or worship style, for instance? God does not condition His grace on these, so why would we? Yet dancing with legalism is more deeply troubling still, for it grips us hard, steps on our toes, and whispers doubt in our ear. It dupes us into distrusting the enormity of God’s love for us and the sufficiency of His grace toward us. It tempts us to “lead” the dance by our works when we can only “follow” in His grace. This should not be, and it need not be.
So, ask yourself, “What was it that set your feet a-dancin’?” Was it the rigid and relentless demands of the law, or the heel-kickin’ joy of forgiveness and grace? Remember your answer. And dance forever with the One who brung ya.
“God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight.” Romans 3:24 NLT
Father, lead us in Your truth, and remind us of Your grace. Grant that we would rejoice so freely in Your Spirit that others will join us in the dance forever. In Christ I pray. Amen.
1 Galatians 4:14 NIV
2 Galatians 3:1 NLT
3 Galatians 5:7 NIV
4 Galatians 4:15 NIV
5 Galatians 3:2-6 NIV
Paul Nordman—Author 