"Will, I never knew what amazing grace really meant until now."
These words are the words of my grandfather who passed away several years ago. They still echo in my head as I remember the first time Sara and I visited their home as man and wife. I remember a time when Granddaddy thought I was a big screw up. Not that he didn't love me, but he knew that I had made some serious mistakes in my life. I didn't completely mess it all up but I didn't do things the way that God had wanted me to.
Not long before he really got ill, I packed what I knew to pack and moved to Saint Louis. He didn't know. I didn't want anyone to know, really. It had been a hard road the last few years that I lived in Memphis. I had battled an emotional illness that drove me crazy. The only way I knew that I could, at the time, be better is to move somewhere where no one knew me from Adam. Little did I know, God's grace would follow me. I crossed over the Saint Louis County line late at night in February of 2006, having a complete chaotic peace. I knew I was home. I knew that these people would be my people. I can hear the voice of God saying "you are home."
Why the drama? Why the beginning of this short message to be one of someone who I loved telling me that he never knew what Amazing Grace really meant? Granddaddy was a hard man. Most would agree that he lived his life doing what he did and everyone else was a .... you get the picture. We joked at his funeral (if you could even imagine doing that) that he was telling Saint Peter how to do his job. Many thought that Granddaddy was not saved or even if he were that once he got there his choir robe would be smoking. But I saw a side of him that very few saw. This side was the side of man who had unfinished business in his eyes. God would see that the work of this man would be completed through his children, his grandchildren, and I believe his great-grandchildren.
I love the faithfulness of God in Lamentations 3:24, "Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each day."Each morning when we rise, we are given a new bucket full of grace. We find ourselves the night before spilling out our sins and burying them in the sands of time. Then God opens up the windows of heaven and pours out new mercy and grace each day. Granddaddy shared many things in life with me in my short time on this earth with him. The side of him that rarely was seen by others was a man who, in the end, became humbled to the realization that he could not live life on his own any more and he needed the help of the Almighty.
Some would argue that it took all this to get this stubborn man to come to Christ. Many would fight to believe that he was saved all this time with a barren bush. But I believe that God had truly shown him amazing grace. For he knew His God in his way and in the end, he embraced God's Amazing Grace.
These words are the words of my grandfather who passed away several years ago. They still echo in my head as I remember the first time Sara and I visited their home as man and wife. I remember a time when Granddaddy thought I was a big screw up. Not that he didn't love me, but he knew that I had made some serious mistakes in my life. I didn't completely mess it all up but I didn't do things the way that God had wanted me to.
Not long before he really got ill, I packed what I knew to pack and moved to Saint Louis. He didn't know. I didn't want anyone to know, really. It had been a hard road the last few years that I lived in Memphis. I had battled an emotional illness that drove me crazy. The only way I knew that I could, at the time, be better is to move somewhere where no one knew me from Adam. Little did I know, God's grace would follow me. I crossed over the Saint Louis County line late at night in February of 2006, having a complete chaotic peace. I knew I was home. I knew that these people would be my people. I can hear the voice of God saying "you are home."
Why the drama? Why the beginning of this short message to be one of someone who I loved telling me that he never knew what Amazing Grace really meant? Granddaddy was a hard man. Most would agree that he lived his life doing what he did and everyone else was a .... you get the picture. We joked at his funeral (if you could even imagine doing that) that he was telling Saint Peter how to do his job. Many thought that Granddaddy was not saved or even if he were that once he got there his choir robe would be smoking. But I saw a side of him that very few saw. This side was the side of man who had unfinished business in his eyes. God would see that the work of this man would be completed through his children, his grandchildren, and I believe his great-grandchildren.
I love the faithfulness of God in Lamentations 3:24, "Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each day."Each morning when we rise, we are given a new bucket full of grace. We find ourselves the night before spilling out our sins and burying them in the sands of time. Then God opens up the windows of heaven and pours out new mercy and grace each day. Granddaddy shared many things in life with me in my short time on this earth with him. The side of him that rarely was seen by others was a man who, in the end, became humbled to the realization that he could not live life on his own any more and he needed the help of the Almighty.
Some would argue that it took all this to get this stubborn man to come to Christ. Many would fight to believe that he was saved all this time with a barren bush. But I believe that God had truly shown him amazing grace. For he knew His God in his way and in the end, he embraced God's Amazing Grace.
2 comments:
Will very touching. I have been reading about this in the book you gave me from Joel. It's true, but I am believing that I get to see birthed the desires that God has put in my heart and that I get to live it too.
That's awesome. It's great to see God birth ideas and dreams through you. Always believe that the impossible is possible
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