This year has been very light when it comes to writing much
down in this journal.
Since it is the last day of the year and since this morning I
finished a great new book by Jerry Sittser, I need to reflect on what is in my
heart as we transition into the new year.
This book is called A
Grace Revealed and the jacket cover summarizes it this way:
“While A Grace Disguised explored
how a soul grows through loss, A Grace Revealed brings the story of Sittser’s
family full circle, revealing God’s redeeming work in the midst of
circumstances that could easily have destroyed them. By sharing his own story and those of others,
Sittser reminds us that our lives tell a good story after all. A Grace Revealed will help us excavate the
details of our own stories so that we can begin to understand how God is
working to tell a good story through our lives too.”
Jerry describes a choice we all have: we can choose to believe (or not to) that our
lives are small redemptive stories within God’s large redemptive story for the
world. By choosing to believe this, we
begin to see the context of events in our lives in different ways, focusing
more on how God can redeem us and our circumstances for a greater good for us
individually as well as those whose lives we touch. In effect, everything that happens can
potentially be redeemed – be made new or result in something good coming to
bear in our lives.
Jerry’s description of how his family rebuilt their lives
after their devastating accident over 20 years ago is full of hope for those of
us who struggle with loss and long-term grief.
As usual, he is brutally honest and does not sugarcoat their struggles,
but he also shows a path available to us all who seek to find the good that can
be found in every struggle and the redemption available for every failure or
loss.
Four and a half years into this, it still seems premature to
grasp how Daniel’s death has changed our family’s story and our stories as
individuals. Hopefully his death has
changed us, and it still can change us for the better. This experience of loss can “be redeemed” by serving to help redeem us – to make us more
loving, sensitive, gentle, forgiving, and grateful people.
God: grant that this redemption may take hold in each of our lives, that your
Grace can be revealed in new and powerful ways, and that our lives will tell a good story after all.
Lord, hear my prayer.
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