March 16

God’s Grace

Once upon a time there was a first year seminarian who was looking for Jesus. The scriptures say, “You will look for me, but you will not find me.”(John 7:34)  But this young man was determined to find God and to have a Lent more holy than holy.  He fasted by eating only soup for lunch, no desserts, no seconds, and no snacks.  He continued with all the assigned readings for the day but also took on an extra dose to show his seriousness.  He walked everywhere trying to be humble.  He was trying his best to show God he was worthy of a righteous relationship.  You may laugh at this as all of his suitemates did.  But it was a grace-filled effort to express his gratitude to God for  all he had received.

In the lessons from Jeremiah and John we see that God is not fooled by empty words or insincere actions.  In Romans we hear that we are do not earn salvation, rather we receive it as grace through faith.  We must not assume, however, that these truths make immature or misguided attempts to honor God meaningless or distasteful.  It is important that everyone search for God and others support them in their search.

God calls us and guides us as we seek to find Him.  Lent is a great time to intensify the search.