Living with Grace

I intend to live with Grace for the rest of my life.  And I can hear someone say “But what happened to Carolyn?  I thought you were going to live with Carolyn for the rest of your life?”

I am.  Carolyn is my main squeeze.  She is the delight of my life, my love, my joy, my best friend.  When I say “I intend to live with grace” I’m not talking about a person, but a set of actions.  Grace is a state of mind.  It is a way of conducting my affairs with mankind and grace is a gift from God that you and I receive on an ongoing basis.

Three ladies let me go in front of them yesterday at Costco.  I had three items and they had twenty-three.  That was grace.

My friend Morris arrived back at his car just as the patrolman was about to write him a ticket for parking past the limit on the meter.  Morris was shown grace.

My neighbor Sandy was given a warning and not a ticket for speeding through the small town of Yelm, WA.  That was grace.

Grace happens whenever we receive mercy and forgiveness when we should have received punishment or a reprimand. 

And sometimes, it is given just because … just because of love.

Remember the woman caught in adultery?  She received grace with the words “Neither do I condemn you.  Go and sin no more.”

And Zacchaeus … he received grace when he was called down from the sycamore tree.  Christ wanted to have a meal with him, not lecture him.

Grace is where I want my focus to be.  We can find something wrong with anything or anyone if we look long and hard enough.  We can dispense condemning words, we can judge, we can call out wrongs, and we can find weaknesses anywhere anytime. 

But what about grace?

So what if another driver cut in front of you today?  Maybe he had an emergency, or it is his wife’s birthday and he is rushing to get home sooner than later. 

So what if it was your turn for ice cream and three small kids cut line?  Did you really suffer all that much?  Maybe it is your day to give a bit more grace.

I love talking about grace for I am a recipient of great grace. 

My faults far outweigh my good points, yet grace abounds.

My actions aren’t always pure and holy, yet grace abounds.

Sometimes I have wars and rumors of wars – in my mind – with someone who did me wrong thirteen years ago.  Yet grace flows down.

Grace Flows Down.

That is it.  The grace of God flows down and fills us and washes over us even in the middle of our mundane and miserable lives. 

We don’t deserve it.  We don’t act like grace-filled people most of the time.  And we don’t give enough to pay the debt that this grace surely costs. 

And it flows down anyway.

I like living with grace.  I like dispensing grace every chance I get. 

‘Cause I get a lot of grace in bushels and basketfuls.

“It is by grace that you are saved.”

… “Oh for grace to trust HIM more”

P Michael Biggs

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A Future with Hope

Every time I have started a job the new company always paints a rosy picture of what my future might look like.

Every cancer patient holds onto an image of what their future might be like when they are cancer-free.

Every parent pictures a bright future for their newborn child.

Every college grad dreams of their future earnings potential and professional career tract with great hope.

Hope abounds. 

John C. Maxwell says this:  “The average person can live only four seconds without hope.”

And so we hope. 

     

     And so we dream. 

Victor Frankl, author of Man’s Search for Meaning and a survivor of the Nazi death camps, concluded this; “Man can only live by looking into the future.” 

The great human need is a need for a purpose.  We are “purpose driven” people.  Give us a mission and it will prolong life.  Take away hope and we shrivel and die for lack of a drink from the purpose pool.

Those few who had the opportunity to survive the Nazi work and death camps did so because they clung to hope for future happiness and fulfillment.

One of the great verses of scripture is found in Jeremiah 29:11.  It is a verse to which I have clung often in my lifetime.  It is full of hope and great comfort. 

“For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord.  I have plans for your welfare and not for harm, because I offer you a future with hope.”

~PMB paraphrase

My future and yours is still unfolding, and so we hope.

We aren’t perfect yet, therefore we hope.

We aren’t well today, however, we hope.

We don’t make the big bucks so far, but the big deal is just around the corner.

We hope. 

          We hope. 

                    We hope.

What is hope?  Seeds - simply seeds that we HOPE will grow into our future.

   Seeds of expectation

      Seeds of trust

         Seed of anticipation

            Seeds of wishes

And then we ask:  “How can you have hope when the world is in such chaos?  Don’t you see the wars and rumors of wars, the strife, the battle over territorial rights in every corner of our globe?  Are you crazy?  You have hope with all that is going on?”

And my answer is still this – “YES, for I have a promise from on high.  The God I know has given His word.  His personal guarantee is “a future with hope”.

Be encouraged today.

P Michael Biggs

Up-Words Web Site

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Imagination

Imagination is free and available to every person alive today.  We can take some amazing trips by using it; we can invent or adapt useful products, write amazing stories, and perform fanciful feats.  Imagination still rules.

Where has your imagination taken you lately?

Here’s what some imaginative souls do to keep the flow going.

~Sit in a dark room with a pen and paper handy.  When an idea strikes they turn on the light and capture the idea

~Sit on the beach

~Swing in a hammock

~Read magazines outside their normal interest area for cross-pollination ideas.

~Take a train ride

~Go home a different route

~Listen to music out of the norm

   And a thousand times more

The bottom line … your imagination is free. 

You own the title to it. 

Use it. 

Set it free. 

Give it plenty of exercise.

P Michael Biggs

Up-Words Web Site

Offering Hope

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The Path Worth Pursuing

So you have an idea of somewhere to go.  That is a good thing. 

And perhaps you are afraid to step out and walk down that path.  Understandable.

You have a real dilemma don’t you? 

Stepping out is risky. 

You might fail. 

You might fall flat on your butt and look like a total idiot. 

You might not garner the followers you had hoped for. 

You might even get there, wherever “there” is and then realize you are in the wrong place. 

The vision might be more exciting than the journey, and isn’t that always the truth? 

Looks like the odds are against you. 

So what?

SO WHAT?

Do the thing anyway. 

The journey is always more fun than the destination. 

You could fail miserably – and you could be a raging success.  Now wouldn't that be something? 

YOU, A RAGING SUCCESS!

Can you see that one?

Why not you? 

Why not now?

(Guess what I’m going to say next.)

You’ll never know until you try.  If it is a worthy path, then pursue it. 

If you fail, learn.

If you succeed, smile and enjoy your moment and keep succeeding. 

The path won’t get easier.  It will give you unbelievable joy.

The pursuit of the thing is where most of the fun lies.

Pursue!

Your destiny is waiting.

P Michael Biggs

Up-Words Web Site

Offering Hope

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Sports Teach

We are a sports-crazed society.  Football fever ran high in Seattle recently with the Super Bowl win by the Seattle Seahawks.  The Soccer World Cup is going on at this moment and these games are capturing the eyes and ears of the world. 

What can a game of sports possibly teach a person? 

Consider this:

~You might learn how to win honorably.

~If you lose, you could learn to lose gracefully.

~The referees and umpires will teach you a healthy respect for authority.

~Some management principles come into play. 

~You will learn to work within the bounds of a team. 

~And you will learn to manage your time, for there is often a game clock that keeps things moving along.

~And maybe, perhaps, you’ll even learn to shoot hoops, toss a ball, catch a grounder, kick a field goal or increase your heart rate by running down the field for fifty or eighty yards.

Sports could be a good thing indeed.

P Michael Biggs

Up-Words Web Site

Offering Hope

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Unworthy Yet Loved

What is the difference between “worthy” and “unworthy”? 

Let us compare:

Worthy

  Commendable

  Praiseworthy

  Laudable

  Admirable

  Precious

  Creditable

Unworthy

  Undeserving

  Worthless

  Not fit for

  Not good enough

  Contemptible

  Pitiful

Surely, any individual in the first group is to be admired, promoted, and accepted. 

And those in the second group?

Well, maybe we should pass them by?  And that is often the way that ball bounces. 

However …

HOWEVER!

Along comes grace.  Along comes the long arm of a loving and grace-filled God and suddenly we see a new order put into play.

We are not loved because of our worthiness.  Oh no.  Just because we have those credentials next to our name does not automatically make us worthy.

The good news is this …we are all declared “worthy” simply by the grace that flows down from God himself.

“Grace teaches us that God loves us because of who God is, not because of who we are.”

~Philip Yancey

Money is not the great equalizer.

Talent is not.

Handsomeness or striking beauty doesn’t tip the scale.

Even cleanliness of body doesn’t weigh in.

My worthiness and yours comes from the gentle and generous hand of God himself. 

Remember … “God loves us because of who God is, not because of who we are.”

We are all loved – end of the conversation. 

And now, we are to walk into that love, humble though we may be, whether dressed in rags or silk scarves, Italian leather shoes or cardboard sandals. - We are loved and we are declared worthy of God’s love.

That is tremendous good news today.  Receive your portion of this great love and grace. 

It is yours to claim as an heir of God himself.

P Michael Biggs

Up-Words Web Site

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time