grace

The leaves linger on the trees in these parts, and I am quite thankful for the prolonged contemplation the warm days provide. Full days pinch out needed ponderings, and it seems this southern season has beguiled me with its extended donnings of sunny days. I get shallow at these times, and each thought comes as a skimming of events, without that needful rumination of digested experience. Such is life, and with the tarrying warmth, I linger here to savor some of God's goodness with you.

I am about to share a little rawness with you all (if there is anyone left:), so please be warned. I communed with a young man last night whose situation has awakened my spirit, and I must share it with you all.

I am unaware of how our conversation began. At some point, and in some way he began to divulge his life to me, and his current, complicated circumstances. He is, and has been sleeping with an HIV positive man, has contracted what seemed like a gaggle of STD's, and has had no real intention of preventing greater mayhem from occuring.

I asked him if he valued his life at all, and then listened in sadness and horror as his tale unfolded. I lingered long over my choice of words as my mind flashed to 18. He intimated of the stranglehold this young man has over him, and how powerless he is to do anything to stop himself. While he spoke, I slipped into memory where I recalled the depths of my own bondage, and the deeper horrors which were all present at that time in my life. I recounted my hopeless estate that was coupled with the talon-grip of sin's demands, and my own inability to do anything to loose its grip. I recalled that pit, and the cordial my flesh kept administering as I lost more and more control of myself and my life. I recounted the despair and the despondency, and then, with a brightness surpassing the multiplied degrees of darkness -- I recalled grace.

The words in John came to mind as hope filled my face "the thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but I come that they might have life, and have it abundantly." (10:10) A deluge of words came flooding out on that poor fellow, and in the quiet of Rahab, us poor sinner's spoke of our need. We prayed and he shared more of his life until it was time to depart.

A temptation had been nagging me at work, and as I pulled away from his house I was humbled -- yet again, to have these truths nail me as they do. Sin promises something that only God can give, and the One that gave it all, is the only One to satisfy. Vainly we corral our desires into empty vaults which require more with each deposit made, when that blessed One, with arms outstretched is there waiting. Allow our Lord to harvest great wreaths of grace from His hand in your life, and tell of it, for to some, the savor is of life.