Wednesday Word: A Little Grace

Welcome back.

For me, it's a welcome back to the office and the weekly routine that entails (although I have added a 3-mile morning walk to that routine as part of the post-surgery recovery process).

For those reading this, I hope it's a welcome back to reading the weekly Wednesday Word. I hope you've missed reading these as much as I've missed putting them together.

After mulling over how to get back into the weekly routine of sending out the Wednesday Word, and debating on what I wanted to write about, I finally settled on the topic of confession and grace.

First, a confession. I spent the last two days in the office before surgery primarily cleaning, organizing, and “packing.” What I packed up was a stack of books that I had hoped to get through over the month. After all, I thought, I would have plenty of time to read through that pile of books stacking up on the floor while I was doing nothing but lying around the house recuperating.

The first week after surgery I was still pretty looped up on pain meds that it was difficult to focus on much of anything. The second week after surgery I still hurt bad enough that I could neither stay focused nor get comfortable for long enough to read anything. It really wasn't until the third week where I was able to actually read for any length of time. So it was during that third week that I managed to finish a total of one book and do some work on Revelation (which resumes on 9/12 for those of you who would like to join us).

Second, grace. There are a lot of definitions and arguments about what grace is and/or does, but for now, I'm just going to say that grace is that which allows you to have room to breathe. We can be too hard on ourselves, and sometimes (most times?) we are our own worst critic. My stack of post-surgery reading material was never touched and there were times that made me feel everything from inadequate to just plain lazy.

Sometimes, though, we need to recognize what we had planned to do was maybe just a bit too much and be willing to extend some grace, some breathing room, to ourselves.

I'm not sure when I'll get all those books read, but I'm glad to have them. More importantly, I'm glad to be back in the office doing what I love doing with people I love being with.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you always,

Todd+