Grace

Aloha and blessings. 

Many years ago while working as a counsellor at a crisis centre, a drug addict shared with me how she had to sell her body to support her habit. As we spoke more, she told me that her habit had become so bad that she also sold her 9-year-old daughters body. She pointed out to me that she made more money in one night doing that, than she could make in a week selling her own body. It was the only way she could see to support her drug habit. Listening to her story almost made me physically ill (It also made me legally liable to report her to the authorities. I was at a loss as what to say to this woman).

 

Finally I asked her if she had ever thought about going to a church for help. The look of shock that came over her face is one that I will never forget. “Church!” She cried, “Why would I ever go there? I am already feeling terrible about myself. They’d just make me feel worse.”

 

As I thought about this incident what came to my mind are the women, who went to Jesus. It seems the worse they felt about themselves, the more they saw Jesus as a refuge. Has today’s church lost that gift? Do the down and outs that live on this Earth today no longer feel welcome among His followers? What has happened?

 

A man that I have grown close to, a dying priest said to me recently “Grace is everywhere.” Yes but how easy we pass by, deaf to the euphony.

 

Many Christians seem to me to have a fundamental theological inability to understand the Incarnation.  To them religion is ultimately a thing of law rather than of grace, a scheme for human betterment rather than a vision of God penetrating a fallen world.

 

Compassionate service is not something to be tacked on to your schedule.  It’s the heart of Christian living!  Jesus said:  “I…did not come to be served, but to serve and to give my life.”  He summed up life in these two words: serving and giving!  It’s not enough to keep learning, you must practice what you claim to believe.  Impression without expression leads to depression.  Study without service leads to stagnation.  The old comparison between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea is still true.  Galilee is full of life because it takes water in and also gives it out.  But nothing lives in the Dead Sea because with no out flow its waters are stagnant. The word minister means: “to give service, care, or aid. The act of service.”  There are a lot of things God does for us every day and we don’t even realize what they are.  Often we don’t thank him for them, yet we expect worldly recognition for every little thing we do.

 

We are called in the strongest way to look for the needs of those around us. We need to put away our prejudices and sacrifice our time, money, and energy to help heal the spiritual, emotional, and physical needs of both our neighbours and strangers. As we serve others, we are serving Christ Himself.

 

 

 

 

 

Pax et Bonum

Duane A Vach