Monday Grace

“I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I want to be. I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am.” -John Newton

Mondays have an immediate way of reminding us what we aren’t.  I’m not as young as I once was.  I’m not as confident as I have been in the past.  I’m not as attractive as I was in earlier years.  It sometimes surprises me that I’m able to share body-ache stories with Amy like I once thought were reserved for the old folks.  Lately I have seen two forces moving in my life: a retreat of my hairline and an emergence of more belly.  Don’t get me wrong – I can still fiercely grow hair….in my nose and inside the rim of each of my ears.

Hope this is blessing your heart.

I would like to admit though that I do see some positive things on a Monday.  I observe that I’m wiser than I once was.  Waking today I give praise to God for making me more patient than in younger years.  Gratitude and grace have been made more prominent in my character.  There is little doubt that I am able to love more powerfully than ever in my life.  God has taught me how to handle wrongs done against me.  Disappointments don’t knock me down any more.  I trust God more easily and I’ve learned the value of being still before Him.  As I’ve been shepherded a little further on the pathway, God has enabled me to hold my tongue, extend a helping hand, shed a compassionate tear and slow down enough to laugh.  Paul taught us that the outer-man was perishing daily (for evidence, see paragraph one above) and the inner man is being renewed daily (2 Cor. 4:16). We might want to rejoice that this verse is being exemplified in our current experience.  We weren’t made to be here forever.  Sometimes we forget this, don’t we?

Maybe we should just let our Mondays know that we are who we are because of God’s constant grace.  I suppose you don’t need to fear all that you are no longer; you were never meant to stay that way.  You and I are in the process of becoming. Grace renews, transforms, and improves us as we journey behind our Master.  We certainly cannot expect to be renewed, transformed or improved without being changed.  Spiritual metamorphosis involves a process of dying and a balancing process of being made into the likeness of Jesus.  May God grant us the grace to learn to appreciate the dying in recognition that it is giving way to the process of being fully alive in Christ.

Mondays are temporary for those who were made alive for the forever.  Keep that in mind when the mirror accuses you of being something other than you once were.  Your bible trumps your mirror and it says that you’re going to be just fine.  Bank on it.