Where is the Line?

Where do you draw the line? Should there even be a line or is holiness an open shaft upward we are to strive for? There are so many factors to consider; how will my actions affect others and how do I please God?

Does the hermit please God if he withdraws from others to continually read and pray? Does the church-lady please God if she is so involved with committees and programs that her family learns to live without her or the family devotee that saves all free time for home and family?

Knowing how to spend one's time and energy righteously is difficult. Does the word "righteously" put the question in a different light? Does that word open the door to feelings of guilt because, short of praying, there's always something more we could be doing. Or, is our circumstance part of God's design and how we spend our time largely dependent on our circumstance? Do we each have an individual plan, with individualized goals, and personal obstacles known only to God?

I don't know, and because of grace, amazing grace, I don't need to know where to draw the line. There is nothing I can do to make Him love me more, and nothing I can do to make Him love me less. God is not an accountant balancing my debits against my credits. My name is written in in the Book and PAID IN FULL is written beside it.

Learning about Grace

It is very difficult to internalize a concept when all your life experience tells you it doesn't work that way. "Work for what you want", "get what you deserve", "you make your bed, you lie in it", "you can do whatever you want if you are willing to work for it", "you reap what you sew", are what we live by, how we motivate and were motivated to achieve.

Understanding the vast reaches of God's grace is something my fingertips are brushing but I haven't yet been able to grasp and secure a good hold. That is not to say I have not received God's grace. It is to say that I believe God's grace expands beyond human knowledge and understanding, even as it applies to just me.

For most of my years I have struggled with comparing others to myself. So, I view my sins relative to other's sins, knowing we all are a chasm from God's holiness. So wrong, so, so, so wrong! And now I am trying to visualize how inaccurate that view is.

I'm asking God to gently show me how undeserving I am and yet, His grace is sufficient to cover my inadequacies. I'm reading Phillip Yancey's, "What's So Amazing About Grace". It's a slow read for me because it is so meaty.

I really think I'm beginning to see it and will continue to study. I want to appreciate all that has been given to me.