How do you define GRACE?
One of the more pleasant things about old age or even the approach of old age are the memories that jump out at you as walk out the rest of your life. Fortunately, for me, the good ones come to mind most often.
As I walk out my Christian life and reflect back on incidents that shaped my life, I constantly am confronted with the term "GRACE." The word gets richer and more complex as I grow in this thing called "GRACE" I find myself thanking the Lord more often for His dispensation of "GRACE" on my life .
I think back on an incident that occured in December of 1960. I came home from college on a friday afternoon and thought about what fun thing I would do before dark. We lived on the river while I grew up and I spent a lot of time on that river fishing in the summer as well as winter and ice skating. All the kids in the area skated several times a week.
As soon as I got home I ran and put on my skates and headed for the river. We used to walk on our skates from the house to the river.
The thing that I had forgoten was that they had been working on the dam that fall and had lowered the water and had only recently allowed the river to fill back up. The weather had been mild and as I was soon to find out, the coating of ice was thin.
I still remember skating out onto the ice and as I approached the deeper part of the river the ice started to crack. Within 2 or 3 seconds I felt the ice give wayand I broke through. I imediately put my arms out so I wouldn't go under. The first thing that I did was to try and climb out onto the ice, but I was futile because the ice kept breaking and I would go down repeatidly. Finially I stopped and after a couple of seconds I realized that I wasn't going to make it out at that rate. At that point I opened my mouth and shouted, "Jesus please help me!"
I was not a Christian at that point in my life, yes I went to church on Sunday and sang the hymns and did the other things that one does in church but I was not saved. I didn't think too much about death and eternity because deep down in the "honest" corner of my heart I knew that I wasn't in a right relationship with God. I had heard that one needed to "be born again" to see the kingdom of God but, like Nicodemus, I couldn't understand how that could be. It just didn't make sense to me, how could that happen?
This is the point in the story where Hebrews 1:14 comes into play. It says, "Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation."
Imediately after I uttered the words, "Jesus, please help me," I started to kick my feet as hard as I could and I slid right up on the ice like a seal does when it comes up out of the water unto the ice. I slid unto the ice, got to my feet, and skated like crazy to shore.
That night as we watched the news we heard of another incident that didn't turn out so well.
The White Bear Lake hockey team was practicing on White Bear Lake and one of the players broke through the ice. Unlike me, he was surrounded with team mates and coaches and they tried unsucessfully to save him. The boy died that friday afternoon as his friends and watched in anguish.
That memory has run through my mind over the years hundreds of times and each time I ask myself, "Why me?" Of course it is always coupled with "What if?" and that can take me off into lots of areas, not the least of which is where would I be today if the names of those two boys were switched.
One of the more pleasant things about old age or even the approach of old age are the memories that jump out at you as walk out the rest of your life. Fortunately, for me, the good ones come to mind most often.
As I walk out my Christian life and reflect back on incidents that shaped my life, I constantly am confronted with the term "GRACE." The word gets richer and more complex as I grow in this thing called "GRACE" I find myself thanking the Lord more often for His dispensation of "GRACE" on my life .
I think back on an incident that occured in December of 1960. I came home from college on a friday afternoon and thought about what fun thing I would do before dark. We lived on the river while I grew up and I spent a lot of time on that river fishing in the summer as well as winter and ice skating. All the kids in the area skated several times a week.
As soon as I got home I ran and put on my skates and headed for the river. We used to walk on our skates from the house to the river.
The thing that I had forgoten was that they had been working on the dam that fall and had lowered the water and had only recently allowed the river to fill back up. The weather had been mild and as I was soon to find out, the coating of ice was thin.
I still remember skating out onto the ice and as I approached the deeper part of the river the ice started to crack. Within 2 or 3 seconds I felt the ice give wayand I broke through. I imediately put my arms out so I wouldn't go under. The first thing that I did was to try and climb out onto the ice, but I was futile because the ice kept breaking and I would go down repeatidly. Finially I stopped and after a couple of seconds I realized that I wasn't going to make it out at that rate. At that point I opened my mouth and shouted, "Jesus please help me!"
I was not a Christian at that point in my life, yes I went to church on Sunday and sang the hymns and did the other things that one does in church but I was not saved. I didn't think too much about death and eternity because deep down in the "honest" corner of my heart I knew that I wasn't in a right relationship with God. I had heard that one needed to "be born again" to see the kingdom of God but, like Nicodemus, I couldn't understand how that could be. It just didn't make sense to me, how could that happen?
This is the point in the story where Hebrews 1:14 comes into play. It says, "Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation."
Imediately after I uttered the words, "Jesus, please help me," I started to kick my feet as hard as I could and I slid right up on the ice like a seal does when it comes up out of the water unto the ice. I slid unto the ice, got to my feet, and skated like crazy to shore.
That night as we watched the news we heard of another incident that didn't turn out so well.
The White Bear Lake hockey team was practicing on White Bear Lake and one of the players broke through the ice. Unlike me, he was surrounded with team mates and coaches and they tried unsucessfully to save him. The boy died that friday afternoon as his friends and watched in anguish.
That memory has run through my mind over the years hundreds of times and each time I ask myself, "Why me?" Of course it is always coupled with "What if?" and that can take me off into lots of areas, not the least of which is where would I be today if the names of those two boys were switched.
posted by Jim Burton at 7:44 AM
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