Grace

So I started reading, "The Unmistakable Touch of Grace" this past week. And it has been opening my eyes and heart to seeing the presence of Grace in my life. The author Cheryl Richardson came to writing this book after finally paying attention to the power of grace in her own life.

In the first chapters, Richardson writes about when she started noticing grace. One example was when she met Michele, an intuitive consultant, who has a website with a "word magic" application that people are really drawn to. The application consists of eight bubbles of different colors that move around the screen. As you look at them, you are to ask a question or think of whatever you want and then see what the bubble reveals as an answer. Richardson was thinking of writing a book about grace but wasn't completely sure. She went to the website and clicked on a bubble after some meditation. The answer she got was "Grace." But because she had just met the woman who created the website she called her to see just what the odds of getting that word were. Michele told her that there are "more that 75 words available to be assigned to a sphere at any given moment and the words were assigned at random with each visit to her site." So the odds that she would pick Grace were more than a million to one. Not just a coincidence but the power of grace at work.

After finishing the first chapters, I was really interested in the Word Magic exercise and decided to google it to see if I could find the website. I found it and clicked on it. I asked as I looked at the bubbles float around, “okay … what do I need to be doing?” I was drawn to the pink bubble. The answer I received, "Heal."

"What? I don’t need to heal. I am fine. I'm doing pretty good," I thought.

So I went back to the main page and re-clicked on Word Magic. Again the bubbles started moving around on the screen and I asked, “What do I need to be doing?” This time I clicked on the green bubble.

The answer again was Heal.

I was completely taken aback. What are the chances that the same word would appear twice from clicking on two different bubbles? If the chance of getting one word appearing randomly is more than a million to one then what are the odds of the same word appearing twice from different bubbles on different visits to the site? Not just a coincidence but the true power of grace trying to show me what I needed to be doing. Healing.

However, I still didn’t believe that I really needed to heal; I thought I was doing pretty well in that department so I waited a few more minutes thinking about what I could possibly need to heal from. I came up with nothing. So I thought what the heck let’s do it again and if I get heal again then I guess that must be what needs to happen. But I don’t know what I need to heal from or how to heal.

Once again I clicked on the word magic application and the bubbles filled the screen. This time the purple bubble caught my eye and my answer was ...

"Humility”

All I could think was … ok. I need to be humble ok … how does this fit with healing?

And it was obvious that I had to get over my pride or arrogance. I needed to be humble with myself so I could see where and how I needed to heal. I could no longer deny that I needed to heal and I had to be real with myself about it. But that day, I was still not sure what healing needed to be done. However, I was willing to think about it. And the first step towards healing is admitting you need to. Or to put it in another way every journey begins with a single step.

The next day, Sunday, after attending church, I was contemplating going to the Sunday night dinner at the Ameele's. As I checked my facebook to see how many people had RSVP, I saw that I had left the Word Magic site open on my internet browser tab. So I clicked once more on it and picked the yellow bubble this time. The word was Participate, which is a pretty simple concept that really can apply to everything. I had just been asking if I should go and here was my answer participate.

Participating can be as simple as showing up or as complex as becoming a leader. Participate could mean to go somewhere you haven't or to have the courage to speak when you usually remain silent. Often it is the difference between hearing and listening.  In order to have relationships, you must participate in them. It takes two.  When one person stops participating, relationships tend to fail.

It has now been a week since that happened and the word participate still seems to be around every corner I turn. It is the answer for bible study questions or whether I should go do something. Also, I began to really examine my life and find where the healing needs to occur. I'm still working on it but I'm feeling better about it.

Are you participating in your life? Are you participating in your relationships be it with god, your spouse, your family, your friends, coworkers, students, groups, organizations, etc? Are you participating in a positive or negative way? How are you going to change the way you participate? Are you just standing on the sidelines listening or are you engaged in the discussion?

I encourage you to actively participate in something new this week.  You never know it may be the change agent of your life.