That Jesus Christ Swag

"Nobody comes to the throne of Grace with Swag." Dr. Matthew McKellar

My very white, middle-aged Biblical Studies professor said this in class today, and the class burst out in laughter. It instantly became my favorite sentence of the week.

It has been said that the ground is level at the foot of the cross. We hear this and assent to it conceptually yet, at least for me, it is much harder to live out in an honest way. I try to earn grace and to prove by my knowledge that maybe I don't deserve grace, but man did I use it well! But in fact, no amount of preaching, or teaching, or soul-winning can ever give me enough holy accessories to let me earn it.

My swag can't get me into that club.

But because I accepted Christ, my name is on that list.

I got that Jesus Christ Swag.

Grace

One of my favorite songs is Grace by Phil Wickham. Not only is he a brilliant singer, his lyric in the chorus is beautiful.

He says: Grace, I call your name, oh won't your smile fall over me. I'm cracked and dry, on hands and knees, oh sweet Christ rain down on me, I need you grace

I have heard all my life that there is nothing I can do to make God love me more, and there is nothing I can do to make God love me any less. And this has become as meaningless to me as "everything happens for a reason".

Because I mean after all- the wages of sin is death. Faith without deeds is dead. I need to prove my holiness by my actions. God gives Grace, but in addition to grace I need my action.

RIght?

I mean, it's too good to be true that God just gives grace and that's it, right? There's that really fast disclaimer (this offer not valid in Puerto Rico, Guam or the Virgin Islands, void where prohibited, no purchase necessary, etc) at the end right? I ask this somewhat facetiously but I think I live my life and most people thinking that my actions are the determinants of my eternal destiny. The truth is that the only thing I contribute to my salvation is the sin that made it necessary.

I cannot do a special dance, say a special prayer or wish a special wish to activate God's grace.

I am not the enactor of God's grace. I am the recipient.

God is the actor, I am the object.

We love because He loved us first. He loved me first. And his Grace is a free gift given not by my meritorious behavior- grace is given despite of my actions. And nothing I do can make God's grace insufficient. That's not to say I will sin freely because of this- to the contrary, my gratitude should drive me to strive to please God even more.

But when I fail, let me not be surprised.

And let me remember that He never does.

The Lord's Prayer

So I don't pray enough. That's bad and I don't like this fact about myself but I get bored praying. I'll lift up little prayers here and there throughout the day but most of my life, I have found it difficult to pray for long stretches of time. I know it's important, I know it's necessary, and yet I have trouble with it.

Lately though, this is changing. And of all things, it's the prayer most people find most boring. The Lord's Prayer. Now, we never recited the Lord's Prayer in our church when I was growing up- it was deemed too Catholic and too formulaic. So although I knew they were the words of Jesus, I had a minor distrust in praying this prayer- it seemed like ritual and not Spirit.

But God recently changed my heart on this. I mean, if you just look at it, it's beautiful.

Our father in Heaven
Hallowed be your name
Your Kingdom come, your will be done
On Earth as it is in Heaven
And Father give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our trespassers, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

This is the way my God prayed. This is the way Jesus taught me to pray. So I started doing so every morning. And throughout the day, when I was stressed, when I became frustrated or just needed to feel Him close by I would pray the prayer. Sometimes I'd put it in my own paraphrase and sometimes I'd just recite it as is. But the thing I made it a point to do was not just say the words but feel their intent.

I need the daily provision He gives. He is Holy. I need His will done in my life. He is in Heaven, I am on Earth and only he can bridge that gap. I need His forgiveness, and I need to forgive. I need to be protected from sin.

I need Him.

I need His Word.

And through the Lord's Prayer, he is teaching me, that this is my prayer too.

The Art of Being

I'm a doer.

Always have been. When I was in high school I was an officer in the Student Council, was a member of LULAC, Choir, Wrestling, Key Club, the school's main Christian club and in my free time helped create a second Christian club.

At church, I sang on the worship team, taught a small group, taught a leadership class, attended a small group, helped lead the youth group and taught Sunday school.

Currently, I work full time, go to school full time, run a youth ministry and most importantly, I got married a year and a half ago so I have a wonderful wife with whom I like to spend most of my time.

As you can see, I keep myself busy.

This makes me feel useful and productive and it has helped a lot of people, thank God. But I realized with all that activity, I had forgotten something very important about myself.

My wife drives ridiculously fast. I mean, NASCAR fast. And it's not when we're in a hurry- it's everywhere. Of course, she tells me I drive like a tortoise and then I try to explain to her that the speed limit is a maximum, not a minimum speed. It does not work.

Since I'm so busy, I often have to sacrifice time with my family, with whom I am quite close. But I started noticing that over the last few years, I could more readily find times where I couldn't be with them than times in which I could. I also noticed that I was not as kind or tender to everyone as I had been in previous years. I had the convenient excuse of being busy, and needing to focus and that was mostly true. But in all my rushing to get school done, to get work done, to write my next sermon or finish my next paper, I had forgotten to pause to just be.

I was living my life the way my wife drives.

So I decided that this year (let's not call it a resolution, let's call it a commitment instead) that I would spend more time with my mom, dad, brothers, sisters and friends and less time "keeping busy".

It bugged me a little bit that I would not be achieving something with that time, but I noticed something. In the down times, I felt my family relax. I felt them open up to me. And I had opportunities to speak into my friends' and family's lives not as the achieving Superman youth pastor but as husband, brother, son, and friend. I am realizing now that sometimes, I don't need to do anything (or everything) to feel right. I don't have to always be going, going, going full speed to be significant or to have an impact. Sometimes, I just need to be and that is enough.

So this year, I'm learning the Art of Being. Wish me luck.