Taking Delight and Giving Grace
I am grateful for wisdom I have received throughout the course of my life from faithful women and men. One such mentor to me has been Steve Garber whose paths have crossed ours in various ways for all 33 years that Lisa and I have been married. These are his words on marriage and they still ring true.
A long time ago I was asked by a young man what I thought made for a good marriage. Those weeks of my life I was immersed in the heartaches of friends who were stumbling badly in their marriages, and so the question had a rawness to it, a knife’s-edge to it, and my mind went ranging over what I thought about the meaning of marriage. I told him that good marriages, healthy marriages, ones which were more happy-than-not for both husband and wife were ones in which the choice was made to take delight and to give grace… day by day by day. I still think that is true.
Take delight and give grace. As Lisa and I get ready to facilitate some conversations on marriage with 15 or so couples this weekend from a sister ministry, I am deeply grateful that she has done that for me, moment by moment, year after year, stumbling along in our love for each other as we have. We have been married long enough now to qualify as "older heads" and our marriage counsel is much the same same as Steve's, take delight and give grace.
Of course, it is the good news of the gospel, drawing us in again, and again, to the truer truths of delight and grace. Through the finished work of Christ, through the Easter potentiality that is woven back into creation, we are invited to have delight and grace be the lens through which we see the world and all our relationships within it. This truth does not negate the struggles we have, but rather speaks to the deeper truths on offer through faith in Jesus.
We will talk about this faith as we look at Hebrews 11 this week. Our Hebrews' Preacher has laid out his main points, Christ has given himself willingly as the perfect, all sufficient atonement, therefore believe in him, rest on him, just like the saints of old did. He is worthy!
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez