HAPPY 249TH, USA
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. . .
IN CASE YOU WONDERED
Straight from Indiana: yes, the corn is defintiely more than knee-high (by the Fourth of July).
GRACE, NOTHING BUT GRACE
With our good friends Nilda and Odias
In his little book on Christian fellowship, Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes, “The Christian cannot simply take for granted the privilege of living among other Christians.” He goes on to say, “It is easily forgotten that the community of Christians is a gift of grace from the kingdom of God, . . . Therefore, let those who . . . have had the privilege of living a Christian life together with other Christians praise God’s grace from the bottom of their hearts. Let them thank God on their knees and realize: it is grace, nothing but grace, that we are . . . permitted to live in the community of Christians today.”
As I have mentioned before, this past week, specifically Tuesday, July 1, marked the fiftieth anniversary of the beginning of my full-time church ministry. And five years of retirement, which has been marked by its own less-than-full-time ministry. It has been a good occasion for memories. I won’t bother you with any of those memories, but I have also reflected on the ups and downs, the satisfactions and the frustrations, of those fifty years.
“Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,” the Psalmist writes, “that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.” (Psalm 90:14) Indeed, God satisfies us with his steadfast love, and as I reflect on these fifty years, I thank God especially for the gift of friendship. To paraphrase Bonhoeffer just slightly, “I praise God from the bottom of my heart. I thank God on my knees. I realize it is grace, nothing but grace, that I have had such wonderful friends.”
I won’t name names for fear of forgetting one, but I think of staff colleagues and fellow seminarians and pastors, some really good elders, and others who looked past the black robe and shared good humor and opened their lives and their homes to us. Fifty years? It’s a long time. Morning by morning, for fifty years, God has satisfied me with his steadfast love reflected in the lives of such good friends. From my heart and on my knees, may I always realize it has been grace, nothing but grace.