EXPERIENTIAL GRACE OF GOD

“The profundity of the experiential grace of God is ever present in the banality of our existential living.”

This statement fully describes to a great extent the mystery of the working of grace in all its complexity and intensity seen in our mundane everyday living. What might be passed off as trivial may actually be the working of the grace of God in our lives.

The grace of God is not the glossing over of our sins, failure, and bad decisions by God but a gracious and compassionate heart of God that is big enough to pick us up and to brush off the “dirt” off us and to bandage up the “wounds” we have inflicted upon ourselves. It is like a father who said to his child who run and fell and hurt himself just minutes after a firm instruction not to run around in a particularly dangerous area: “It’s okay. Let me clean you up. There, you’re alright. Get going but remember not to run there again!”

The grace of God can also be seen in the quiet confidence within us as we come face to face with situations in our daily lives – a kind of calmness and peace that defies understanding as we put our trust in Him. We may not always see the results we expected but certainly we still sense that quiet confidence of restfulness in His presence.

In the last two weeks I am confronted with a new challenge as reality hits me when my wife had to go through chemotherapy. Out of the ash heap of calamity comes the voice of God assuring my heart that He is here with my family as He always has been. That’s the power of the grace of God. It is not some kind of supernatural, heaven-open, earth shattering divine manifestation that zaps away my calamity. Strangely, it is the quiet confidence that came over me as I rest in His presence and listen closely to His soothing voice, “I am here with you, by you, and for you!” That, to me, is the profundity (the complexity, intensity, and greatness) of the experiential grace of God manifested in the banality, the ordinariness, of everyday life on this earth!