Good morning…
This time of year I absolutely love. In our Women’s Ministry at Northside Church, it is our time of waiting for new rosters to form. Throughout the fall, we prayerfully consider relevant studies to offer our community. Poignant topics. Spirit-led teachers. Morning, afternoon, and evening time slots to meet a plethora of needs. We create a class line up, advertise options on our website, and wait to see who God taps on the shoulder and coaxes to register.
As I prepared for my classes last week, I fell in love with a new quote. “Grace, we must learn, is opposed to earning, not to effort,” says Dallas Willard, author of many eye-opening, challenging books. Reading new books every semester takes effort for me, an ADD-prone dyslexic. Melding together old classmates with new friends takes effort, for each brave person risking relationship. Creating various syllabi to outline this winter/spring semester takes effort, effort invested by all of God’s handpicked facilitators. Semester by semester, year after year, I witness God’s grace abundantly given, multiplying the gift of effort offered by many.
None of us sign up or prepare for a class because we hope to earn more of God’s grace. God’s grace is complete, all encompassing, enough, whether or not we attend a weekly Bible study or settle into a monthly Listening Group. Yet if we feel drawn to put in our effort, through grace we will get to know God, our selves, and others more intimately.
And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved…being made whole, (Acts 2:47b, NLT).
…Sue…
