Theologian Serene Jones offers a compelling description of God’s ever-present and transformative grace:
Divine love is the source of the universe and of the dinosaurs, the planets, the elements, and the air, the force that sparked us into existence and baffles us all while we exist, the current of love and joy and beauty that runs through the human experience.… All life flows into being out of one source, Divine Love, and it is forever deeply related and responsive to that love. That love defines, holds, and promises to be present to the lives that God calls into being. That eternally present love is, most simply stated, my definition of grace.…
God does not stay at a distance from us but constantly seeks to transform our lives by asking us to awaken to the divine presence. God is a mysterious, creative, sustaining life force.… God is there all the time. The challenge for us is to open our eyes, ears, hands, minds, and hearts to receive the truth of God’s real, persistent presence, God’s grace. When we open ourselves to it, we are changed by it. The way we perceive the world shifts, like a radically refocused camera lens, and we experience life differently. You see everything around you as suffused with God’s love. You see God’s grace everywhere, saturating all existence. This process of awakening to what is already true, but you haven’t previously seen it, is called conversion—a word that literally means “to see anew.”
Jones highlights the paradox of awakening to God’s grace alongside the realities of sin and evil:
Sin simply refers to all aspects of life where the reality of grace is not manifest and evil flourishes. It’s what happens when we’ve got the wrong story about reality in our heads. If we do not recognize grace, we latch onto lies about who we are. These lies are manifest in an endless variety of godless dispositions: hatred, violence, greed, injustice, pride, despair, isolation, self-loathing, unbridled arrogance, a hardened heart, a cold soul. When these lies are aggregated over time, they get compressed into social systems and cultural patterns that look to us as if they are true, when in truth they are not. They are evil and profoundly destructive. This is what it means to be godless—to not be awakened to the light of God’s love. It describes grace-asleep people as well as whole grace-asleep societies.…
This constant tension between sin and grace in our lived experience doesn’t mean, however, that they are equal partners in determining our destiny. Because grace is of God, it ultimately wins. We are forgiven by God, whatever horrors we commit or are done to us, however unmeritorious our deeds and broken our lives, because that’s who God is. Grace is free; we don’t earn it nor are we required to deserve it. That’s what makes grace grace. It comes unbidden to us all.
A blog By Terri Sullivant at Life Model Works, the repository of thinking at the intersection of Scripture, NeuroScience and Therapy.
I have always loved these verses in Psalm 107 (NIV):
29 He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed.
30 They were glad when it grew calm, and he guided them to their desired haven.
31 Let them give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for mankind.
On our way to Kansas City in 1987, the Lord highlighted these verses from Psalm 107 to me. The whole Psalm is about God coming to rescue and provide what people need in tumultuous times. There truly is nothing new under the sun. We live in an imperfect world with lots of challenges. There will be many storms that we will walk through in our lifetimes, including those within our church communities.
God is with us during every storm, and He wants us to cry out for His help. When we do, He will come to our rescue. In Psalm 107 He promises to hush and calm the waves and winds, and to guide us to our “desired haven”.
The word “haven” means harbor or port; place of safety or refuge; a place offering favorable opportunities or conditions.
I have personally experienced this over and over again throughout my lifetime. I’ve discovered that we can inhabit this “haven” He provides for us – it becomes our own oasis of peace where we can abide and live at peace with our families and friends in our communities. The storms will come, but we will be able to return to joy and peace from all the emotions they create. It is a shelter in every storm.
What do we need to do to “get there”?
- Cry out to the Lord.
- “Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress.” Psalm 107:28
- Practice gratitude and golden memories. Connect with Immanuel in them.
- Engage with Immanuel amid your emotions. Allow Him to calm the waves.
- Anchor the new story of returning to peace and joy from those emotions.
- Share with your family and friends and help them follow these same rhythms.
- Enjoy each other and live together in the oasis of shared peace and joy.
- “Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind” Psalm 107:31
Michael and I have been following Jesus and serving in leadership in churches since we began our journey with Jesus. We have experienced many storms in our 48 years of ministry. Wherever you live and work, you will encounter those storms – church included. Because we have higher expectations of what we will experience in Christian communities, the disappointment can be greater. There are mentalities and patterns of relating in religious groups of people that can be mind-bending. Don’t let that make you “quit” church altogether! That is the enemy’s plan, not God’s. We may need to change communities if the one we are in is too unhealthy to remain in, but do find another, healthier one. Because there are no perfect people, there will be no perfect communities.
Amid imperfect communities, we can create a haven of peace with others who are like-minded and doing the practices we have learned in the Life Model. These healthy rhythms build stronger and stronger attachment with the Lord and one another. This is where we can abide in our haven of peace, our refuge from every storm.
We were able to do this with our family in our years of ministry. We also were able to find a “community within our community” to live with in peace and joy. I’m so grateful for this! The Lord did provide for us our “desired haven” just as He promised.
Immanuel truly can and will calm your storms and guide YOU to YOUR desired haven, it’s His promise to YOU.
