Where is it?

There are two things I must think about on Friday or at least by Friday. The first is this article and the second is how to organize the ideas and thoughts I have for the message for Sunday. Both are like are 24/7 task masters that never take a break, call in sick or change their deadline. So, I opened the door to my office, walked in, turned on the light, set my book down and looked for my computer. It was not there. Immediately I knew it was at my home, ugh. I had left it there Thursday evening (not a normal thing I do). Drat, today my Jedi mind powers are on the blink.

Solution, there is another laptop in my office I could use instead of going home and returning with my computer. So I fired that bad boy up and searched to open this file to write this task-master-article but no-can-do. The computer has network connection issues, ugh. The choice, I could spend time trying to resolve the issues on a machine not regularly used or go home and get my computer. I opted for the later just a little thing.

It is the little things that get us. Many a passionate discussion has raged over the up-ness or down-ness (I just invented those terms hey maybe they will go viral) of the toilet seat or the placement of a trash bag in the waste can following disposal or the purchase of a specific brand of pain reliever verses the generic. A few years ago a young woman in pre-marital counseling remarked how it is always the little things that blow up between a couple. I think it is always the little things that throw a wrench into the day. A simple loss-of-mind momentarily results in an article about…well you know. It is crazy or is it?

Some mornings the whole flow of the day is determined by one little thing, out of coffee. We react like the whole day depended upon our coffee. Some of you are saying, “Well yes.” Sit down and hear me, it is just NOT so. The whole day does not depend on one little thing however, it is determined by our perspective of those little things. Our perspective is most times suspect because it is so limited. What do I really know? Yes, I have lived a few years but the longer I live the more I recognize I know very little about very little, although, I got final Jeopardy the other night from a very obscure statement. Barbara looked at me and said, “How did you get that?” I also recognize I spend a lot of time on the little things and not the important things.

Monday evening a radio show challenged me to consider grace and acts of grace in my life, the kind that change everything. That is what grace does it changes everything. We throw the word around so casually and with such great familiarity acting as if we know what that means. We sing about it and say it. As I drove down the road I was stumped to think of a grace moment that changed everything, a moment so important that you recall the scene and faces and smells of the environment. You can hear each word spoken or not spoken in your mind as you remember. As I began to think about grace moments I recognized they are all around us, happening every minute of every day and I dismiss them as little things.

Grace changes everything and a moment of grace is NOT a little thing. Today the leaving of my computer was a little thing that I made big. It was small because you are reading this article and it is still Friday while I complete it, task complete. What was big? The round trip was big. Why? The day is bright with sunshine and life, my dog greeted me with excitement and a wagging tail at the house, I spoke with my wife who loves me so to care for me, my parents and my children so very well. Moments I enjoyed but did not deserve. Those are grace moments. I probably would have missed them if my little thing had run its course in my mind. Yes, I would have missed the GREAT things of grace. Had it not been for this task-master article about grace!

Grace, it’s not a little thing!

  
In HIS Service and Yours,

BroG