Grace In The Valley By Heath AdamsonНамуна

Day 7

Grace for Your Valley

Scripture

Like the little boy in the earthquake, are all buried beneath a heap of memories, words, regrets, thought patterns, mistakes, sins, and abuses. A weight we cannot possibly lift. No matter where we’ve come from or how “put together” our life is, without God’s grace we’re unable to climb out. 

In June 1996, the air was sweltering in Ann Arbor, Michigan, when seventeen Klansmen held a rally outside city hall. Keshia Thomas, an African American teenager, was angry, fed up, and disgusted at the racism and hatred across our country. She joined a mob of around three hundred protesters who emerged in stark contrast to the racists.

One individual, with a tattoo honoring and promoting the SS, was chased by a group Keshia was in. The protesters became violent. The racist lay on the ground while the mob kicked him and beat him with sticks. But Keshia, every bit as hurt and angry as the other protesters, threw herself on top of the Klansman and shielded him from the blows.

In a world of pretenders, it takes courage to be who God created you to be. Keshia used her circumstance to call her true identity to the surface with a single act of unconditional love.

In the mystery, we see a miracle happen.

Like Keshia, making a simple choice to let who we are break through the façade of anger, projection, hurt, and numbness can set the love of God free in our situation. We choose to love when anger would be convenient. We choose to hope when a better day is not in sight.

Like David in the forest of Hereth, although you can still hear the echo of the songs sung after you defeated the giant, when your circumstances do not seem to line up with the character of God, who God is to you and who you are to him will be made clear.

And like the blind men in Jericho, you may have cried out before with your whole heart only to feel unheard. Your desperation is not in vain when it is directed toward God. When you cry out to him, God will stop for you too. There is a grace for your valley.

Identify one choice, belief, or action you can hold on to today as an act of faith that God is with you and his grace will see you through.