May 10

May 10

Recommended Reading Psalm 27 and 1 Peter 4

Over the years my husband and I have occasionally enlisted our children’s help in ministry. Usually this has involved tapping into their musical abilities. Lots of times it’s been a request for patience when our family schedule has needed to flex in order to accommodate a pressing need of a hurting person or family. Once it resulted in a lost week of vacation as we responded as a family to a ministry crisis.

Today, the tables turned. Our son needed his dad to help him create a video for an assignment related to his youth ministry internship. I so enjoyed watching Pete return the favor and rearrange his schedule in order to accommodate Scott’s ministry demands.

The story goes like this…Once, a long long time ago, when Pete was in college, he was taking an applied math course. At midnight, after a rigorous evening of rec basketball, Pete sat down to study for a test the next day. After a few minutes, he realized that no amount of study (at this late hour) could prepare him adequately for that test.

For no reason that he can explain, he reached into his desk and pulled out his very dusty Bible and began to read. Suddenly, a peace that passes all understanding overtook him, and he decided that the best thing to do with such peace was to put it to bed.

The next morning he woke up, went to math, took the test…and aced it. By his own admission, Pete realized that he had no clue where his answers sprung from or how he managed to score better than all his friends (who had foregone b’ball to study). (That’s the only part of the story I question. I never have known Pete to have friends who would choose studying over basketball.)

Anyway, he followed the exact same routine for the next test…and bombed it.
It occurred to me that Pete’s willingness to tell the story was a great example of admitting wrong. I’ve heard him use the story to illustrate both the miraculous power of God AND to warn others that presuming on God’s grace might not be the best plan in the world.

The psalmist is counting on God to hold him close even if his parents abandon him. This speaks to God’s love and grace and mercy. But I don’t think it should give us an excuse to be cocky about our wrongs. Wrong doing is serious business in the kingdom of God.

Thought for today: I know that lots of us have experienced unmerited grace. Examples that come to my mind include: a kid I know whose dad just bailed him out of jail for the umpteenth time – with no thanks from the child, a wife I know who chooses to forgive her husband’s infidelity, a child of alcoholic parents who is choosing to not self-medicate with alcohol and drugs in spite of his chaotic family system…the list is long. But unmerited grace should not be used as an excuse for unwillingness to own up to one’s wrong doing. Just because you’ve dodged the bullet today doesn’t mean you didn’t deserve consequences for your actions. Why not man up and do the right thing – even if it looks like you can skate through with no ill effect?

Thought for tomorrow: Who can say, “I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin”? Proverbs 20:9 NIV

May 10
Teresa McBean