Welcome to GRACE!

That’s literally all that I’ve been saying to myself since my surgery on Wednesday. Having a minor procedure on my foot humbled me in ways that I cannot even begin to describe and God is being very intentional in helping me truly process the grace of grace.

GRACE is both simple elegance or refinement of movement, and courteous goodwill (as defined by Google). Similarly, God extends grace to us in that He often gives us that which we do not deserve. GRACE is a noun, a thing that we do or extend to ourselves (or others) in light of circumstances around us. It is a beautiful thing that allows us to show beauty in a situation that otherwise might not warrant beauty.

Truthfully, GRACE is a hard word to describe… unless you are the one in need of it. And lately, I’ve found myself in dire need of this indescribable gift from God, myself, and others.

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I don’t think there is such a thing as an easy surgery, in the eyes of the patient. Yes, a doctor may say that a surgery was easy because it didn’t take much time or because it went as well as expected. Yet for the patient, the surgery itself is often the easy part because we are asleep for the procedure. It is in the very moments post-anesthesia that we feel the pain of what has happened to us. Though we were not awake for it, we feel and become very aware of where the surgical blade penetrated our skin, where a scope entered our body, and the surgical closing that was rendered when the procedure was finished. Again, though we were asleep for the procedure itself, when we do wake up, we are left to pick up the pieces of life. Healing happens on this side of the procedure… yet, healing only happens in the place where pain once resided (come back to that; it will make sense later).

As you go throughout your days on earth, you will undoubtedly encounter situations that leave you checking your body for the puncture wounds of a metaphorical surgical blade. Your spirit will ache and cave under the pain of feeling like someone violated you and now you are left to deal with the pain. You will question yourself, wondering how you got into this position and sit in a place of desperation and disillusion as you try to navigate out of it. The pain will be excruciating and you will not know what to do. It will feel as though each second that you spend in that place is more debilitating than the second before. It will feel like true hell on earth.

It is in that painful place that God is welcoming us to GRACE.

Beloved, run expeditiously towards GRACE! Run as though your life depends on it because, well, it does. God never intended for us to sit in a place of pain or despair; He literally sent His Son to rescue us from our muck and miry clay. We must RUN! We must seek the coverage of the abundant healing that God has intended for us in this season of our life. RUN TOWARDS GRACE!

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I truly wish that pain was not a thing. As I sit here typing this piece, my post-surgical foot is elevated with a frozen water bottle on it to help with pain and swelling, I’m popped up on pillows to help with my aching neck and back, and I’m trying to focus on the moment so that I don’t think about the pain of the next moment. Yet even in all of this, I am actively listening to the words of Isaiah Templeton as he says, “Everything Will Be Alright”, and my heart is anchored in the truth of God’s Word that everything WILL be alright.

Weeping may endure for a night, but JOY comes in the morning.

Psalm 30:5

I’ve always loved that verse yet some things became more obvious to me as I got older:

• “Night” is not necessarily defined the way that we are inclined to interpret it. Night could be longer than the hours of literal darkness that we receive at the end of every day. Night may be a season BUT, it will end.
• When that season ends (no matter how long it may be), joy will come. When we have God’s spirit dwelling within us, JOY is always present… though we might not always see it. Praise God, Beloved, because when those dark clouds of the night season roll by, we will see the JOY that was always there.
• Though the author said “morning”, sometimes my heart reads MOURNING. There is reason to rejoice and see JOY even in my mourning. Whether I am mourning the loss of a loved one, a limb, a job, finances, a relationship, bodily function, or what it may be, THERE IS JOY IN THAT, TOO! Wherever God is, there is peace and since He is omnipresent, His peace is, too.

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Brave Heart, welcome to GRACE. Welcome to that place where we acknowledge our imperfections and limitations, yet we cling to God’s PERFECT and LIMITLESS hand. Let us embrace JOY in this place. Let us find STRENGTH in this place. Let us HEAL in this place.

Be blessed.