Awakened to Grace, by humility

Today I watched as my son’s high school soccer team suffered the first loss of the season after 13 games.  The first half started strong, but then the wheels came off and what looked like another win at the half (we were leading 1-0) turned into 4-2 loss.  What was clear in the aftermath of the loss was that this group of confident teenagers had lost a bit of their undefeated swagger.  They were humbled.  So now, the question becomes, “Where do we go from here?”

In the midst of loss and defeat we all face a similar question.  When the hope we had for great triumph gives way to a crushing blow we are forced to wonder if the future will offer any joy or blessing.  “Where is God in this?”  That question is all too familiar is it not?  Today’s entry is for those who are in the midst of the holiday or post-holiday blues, and any of us who may be wondering what is ahead.  It is also for those who think they have life by the tail.  Today’s words, taken from one of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Christmas sermons, is a reminder of God’s affection for those who find themselves humbled.  It is a call, also, for all the victors  to remember the message of Jesus, the suffering servant.  He has a soft spot for the lowly.
God is near to you today, though you may not sense His presence.  Look to His heart for the lowly and find your rest and joy.  Bonhoeffer writes,

God in the “humble state” –that is the revolutionary, the passionate word of Advent.  First, Mary herself, the wife of a carpenter.  We may say, the poor working man’s wife, unnoticed by men–but now, insignificant and in her humble state as we might see it, she is significant to God and appointed to be mother of the Savior of the world.  Not because of some remarkable human trait in her, not because of some great piety, not because of her modesty, not because of any particular virtue in her, but apart from any of these characteristics, only because God’s gracious will is to love the humble and lowly, the insignificant.  He chose to make them great.  

…God is not ashamed to be with those of humble state.  He goes into the midst of it all, chooses one person to be His instrument, and does His miracle there, where one least expects it.  He loves the lost, the forgotten, the insignificant, the outcasts, the weak, and the broken.  Where men say, “lost,” He says, “found;” where men say, “condemned,” he says “redeemed;” where men say, “no,” He says, “yes.”  Where men look with indifference or superiority, He looks with burning love, such as nowhere else is to be found.  Where men say, “contemptible,” God cries, “blessed.”  When we reach a point in our lives at which we are not only ashamed of ourselves, but believe God is ashamed of us too, when we feel so far from God, more than we ever felt in our lives, then and precisely then, God is nearer to us than He has ever been.  It is then that He breaks into our lives.  It is then that He lets us know that that feeling of despair is taken away from us, so that we may grasp the wonder of His love, His nearness to us, and His grace.

In case you missed it, ran past it, looked over it, ignored it, or otherwise misplaced it… this, and precisely this, is the message of Christmas.  God is near.  He is near to you.  He is near to me.  He is near to those who need Him most.

I pray that we all walk in this reality now and in the New Year to come,

Bruce Smith

optimuslife.org

This entry was posted on 27. December 2007 at 15:53 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.