God's Child

This morning I was awaken to the aches and pains of my age. My arthritis, or so I believe it to be, in my legs and hips just doesn't allow for restful sleeping in the early morning hours. So today I gave it up and went into the living room to sit up in my recliner. I made the coffee and sat reading the ACU Today magazine that had arrived this week in my mail.

I graduated from Abilene Christian University when it was still ACC. It is so amazing for me to read about people that graduated near my class and have gone on to achieve so much in life. ACU graduates are successful in all careers and in numerous places around the world. The profession I find especially fascinating is not the doctors, lawyers, teachers or photo journalist that ACU spawned. While those are noteworthy professions, I continue to be intrigued by the missionaries, preachers and students of Biblical studies. Those people live to study God's word. They champion His cause in all nations and walks of life. They are passionate about bringing the word to others and in general doing what they know Jesus would do if He were walking among us today. God bless those people who choose to encourage those of us with lesser faith.

In my early morning reflective hours, my emotions and feelings run the gambit from angst about the corporate worship and politics of my local congregation, to the longing for spiritual revival in my own life. When I read about how ACU influenced a man who is now preaching in what many term a "megachurch", I have to wonder how I skipped through my college years on such a shallow mindset. Even though I do remember hearing messages that pricked my heart and would sear my soul with a longing to be a better Christian for Christ, I left ACU and those lessons slowly faded into the busy-ness of adult life.

A reflection of who I am at my core, comes back to me In the first hours of morning. It is at those times when nothing has happened in the day to discourage me, no person or event has challenged my opinions, no substance has yet altered my thinking or approach to my day, that I am vulnerable. I am who I am. A child of God, needing forgiveness and mercy.

As I read this morning I was encouraged by words of Rick Atchley, a former ACU student and currently the senior minister of a church in Texas. He said, "the grace of God is bigger than any sin or mistake." What a statement and revelation for my eyes to read. He repeated that same statement in regard to his preaching each Sunday that "I preach to nobody whose mess is bigger than God's grace." I don't know about you, but that is the type of encouragement that I need repeated in my ear on a daily basis. I openly admit to being weak for sin and somewhat of a "mess". Guilt and discouragement along with the reality of what I don't do on a daily basis makes me ashamed. I am weak. I need all the "Rick Atchleys" I happen to come in contact with to tell me that God's grace is bigger than any mistake that I make.

There isn't a lot more to this. I just wanted to put some thoughts down before the day progressed any further and I begin to lose the person I know I am. God's child.