Fits and Starts

Kind of a first time-dry run post here, to get a handle on the process. Love to write but spend more time thinking about it than doing it ususally...(I'm afraid I've just described many areas of my life with that last statement). Hope to provoke some thinking, both by me and by any readers of what's here, and perhaps the conversations may cause us to consider more of what really matters.

Father's Day

Is an interesting national observance, certainly more potentially meaningful than many of the Hallmark-initiated days we have each year. It always gives me pause, some to reflect on what kind of relationship my father and I had (or didn't have), but mostly on what I coulda/woulda/shoulda done differently with my own children and now my grandchildren. I wish I had been more stable, more available, more loving, more considerate, more wise, more, more, more...
While I know that my best standard to emulate is Father God, He does a lot of things I still don't understand well, so I'm sure that could get off track pretty easily too. I do know that before I had the gift of children and grandchildren, I had no clue what genuine love was. I've been learning more what it is ever since my son took his first breath thirtysome years ago, and it gotten clearer each day since. Love gets you up from the Lazyboy to play catch, helps you stay awake until your daughter gets home, gets you on your knees when your grandchild is sick or hurting, reminds you of your vows when you reach 40, warms your heart when you read that handmade letter or glance at the stick figure hanging on your office wall. I've come to realize my favorite "job" in my life is being a dad. Quaint but true, and I hope at least it's a little Practically Christian, too.

Grace

We say it before meals (sometimes), use it in conversations, name our grandkids with it, but just what is this thing called Grace? Scripture calls it unmerited or undeserved favor, which logically implies that someone (as opposed to something, since to bestow or grant that favor requires conscious and informed thought) decides to give you more than you deserve (on the positive side), or less than you deserve (when you really had it coming). Having repeatedly been the recipient of it throughout my life, I still have yet to fully grasp it, and fear that I may in the future presume to have it coming to me when, by definition, it can't work that way. If I deserve it or have earned it, it can't be Grace, but something due me. And how does someone respond after receiving it yet again? It has humbled me, relieved me, reminded me, sobered me. If I come to expect it though, I suspect it may desert me, expose me, humble me, correct me...amazing that it can have many of the same impacts in our lives whether it is granted or witheld. Must be a God thing. Anyway, I hope somehow this is all Practically Christian 2.