Grace will take you places that hustling can’t. – Unknown
Reflection
This week we looked at two stories in Mark's gospel.
One ordinary, miraculous day that Jesus had in Mark 1. And another not so miraculous day that Jesus spent in his hometown of Nazareth in Mark 6. Take the time to go back and read over any devotions you may have missed this week. Email us at talktous@pktfuel.com with any thoughts you have around them. We would love to know how these stories speak to you.
I read a quote recently that is changing my life. I’ve always thought that working hard, being an A-type person, would get me to where I need to be. It's often been said to me, and I’ve often said to others, ‘you just have to push through, keep on going, head down, work hard, don’t lose focus, keep moving forward.” Now, that's all well and good. Until the hustle becomes the place where we derive our worthiness from – when how hard we work and how much we achieve, become the hallmarks of success. As I have experienced, hustling will only take you so far. And if you don’t learn to listen to your body, and the Holy Spirit, hustling will lead you straight to emotional bankruptcy and burnout.
Grace will take you places that hustling can’t.
As Jesus did, learn how to follow up a huge day with prayer and reflection. Let yourself off the hook and take a day off. Breathe. Rest. Don’t put so much pressure on tomorrow to perform better than today. Don’t miss God's best love for you, that is here right now, by thinking that the ‘best is yet to come.' We don’t know what's ahead, but we do have this day. So love it all the way through it. Grace, grace and more grace.
This kind of grace leads to vulnerability. The kind that allows our heroes to be prophets, and opens up the prophet within us to see God, ourselves and life as we never have before. Frederick Buechner wrote, “Jesus came not to drown the old law out… but to make it sing anew, like an angel.”
Our prayer for you today is that you won't feel like you have to throw out the old to usher in the new. God comes and takes our lives – present and past, successes and failures – pulls them together, adds his love and grace, and sums them up in him. Then the oldness that we felt sings anew, like an angel, at the possibilities alive at this moment.
Grace and Peace,
Lizzy (and Jesse).
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