Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope you are as much enjoying this day as we have been. So far I've spent the entire morning drinking coffee in my pajamas and chasing the puppies around the living room while attempting to watch the parade. I'm grateful to spend the day with family and I can't wait for the rest of the gang to get here for our annual black friday fun. If you've seen the Target commercials, you have a clear picture of how my grandma and I act on this day... stretching, strategizing, and joking about knocking people down for the good deals. In reality, nobody ever has anything specific they're after but traditions are always good fun.
Anyway, this morning I thought I'd share some things from my journal from last night. I hope it's a blessing and a sweet reminder to you of grace this morning.
In thinking about the law given in the old testament and why it was given to us, to Moses, with such extreme demands of perfection...
Moses's people met the law's birth with a resounding "okay, we can do this" only to quickly realize afterwards, just like each of us eventually do, that their confidence was far from reality. That perfect, unattainable law was given the people to reflect how perfect and unattainable our God is. Or should be. He has that right. In the light of that law is where we realize we cannot dream of measuring up and thus where grace becomes so sweet. Romans 3. Through the unattainable perfection of the law our sin is revealed. Through the revelation of our sin, His grace is magnified. He is that unattainable perfection but let's never overlook the fact that He made Himself fully attainable to us through the grace that is Christ.
So then we reach a point of recognizing grace and yet striving still to hold to the law in an effort to please Christ. Or perhaps we create our own laws-- our own list of things we have to do and not do to be a good Christian. If we are truly living in faith, that's our desire, right? Yes... but I believe that I, like many people who strive to be good, often reach a place of being stressed by that pressure. His yoke claims to be easy and His burdon light, (Matt 11:30) but I fall into that category all too often of feeling guilty that I've failed to spend enough time with him today or guilty that I didn't serve in a way I could have or stressed that I'm not continually growing in the way other people may seem to be. There is a difference in guilt and conviction. We live far too often in self-created guilt rather than recognizing the gift and sufficiency of His grace.
It isn't supposed to about me continuing to measure my growth that I might be living exclusively by my list of spiritual disciplines and thus pleasing God. No, that puts me falling back under trying to fill a law. And remember that that law is unattainable for the sake of my recognition of my imperfection. No, in Christ there is freedom. Romans 5. Galatians 5. And if there is truly freedom, then I don't have to stress that I am doing good things out of the overflow of my heart. I need only to be a Mary and sit still at the feet of Christ. Our focus then shifts from whether or not I am constantly growing, serving, doing the right thing, being who I need to be, upholding all the laws I have created and put in place as disciplines... it shifts from the weight and the pressure of all my self-given demands simply to the face of Christ. That is and will always be what is most important.
And is that to say those disciplines and laws are bad things? No, surely not. That's the same as calling the commands to not lie, steal, murder, etc. irrelevant and useless. No, we still desire to uphold those things but it shouldn't be necessary for it to be our constant focus. My goal is not to lead better or write deeper blogs or live in high spiritual regard. My eyes rest only upon the beauty that is Christ. That is never exhausting. Because His yoke is easy and His burden is light. He offers freedom, full freedom, from the law. Why continue to create more law for myself?
Let all of that soak into you as you celebrate being thankful today. Are you celebrating the full freedom that Christ's grace offers us, or are you continuing to load yourself down with the weight of trying to fulfill unattainable laws, created only to show you your imperfection and your deep need for Christ? It's a lot to think about and definitely lends to some soul-searching. I'd love for you guys to join me in praying today that God would reveal to each of us where our true focus is. I pray that for you it is the face, the glory, and the grace of Jesus.
I'm off now to get ready for the day and maybe help mom make the dressing. Today is bound to bring the annual event of my dad not believing me and getting out the camera manual to figure out how to set the self-timer for the family photo... it's the same button every year. (If you're struggling here also, it's the one that looks like a clock...) I love family. Really.
Happy Thanksgiving, friends! Enjoy the day!
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