But by the grace of...
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"But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect." Mostly, we do okay going through life. We float along. We even meet some days with design. Occasionally, particularly when life's surprises bombard us, the old "I am what I am" greets us in the mirror.
A choice presents itself: We can affirm that basic "I am" and honor it, thereby living with a sense of direction. We may refuse to recognize the "I am" thereby turning our backs on what uniquely is the gift of epiphany by the grace of God.
In The Wonderful Crisis of Middle Age, Eda J. LeShan says, "When we keep up a good front most of the time, we often end up lying to ourselves as well as to everyone else.... The task of living fully is to elicit what is inside and to allow it to happen, not to invent something or build something outside ourselves."
Frederick Buechner, in The Sacred Journey, tells us, "Listen. Listen. Your life is happening. You are happening. The music of your life is subtle and elusive and like no other.... There is no chance thing through which God cannot speak.
(From Frederick Buechner, The Sacred Journey [San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1982], pp. 76, 77 and Eda J. LeShan, The Wonderful Crisis of Middle Age [New York: McKay, 1973].)
--Brauninger
A choice presents itself: We can affirm that basic "I am" and honor it, thereby living with a sense of direction. We may refuse to recognize the "I am" thereby turning our backs on what uniquely is the gift of epiphany by the grace of God.
In The Wonderful Crisis of Middle Age, Eda J. LeShan says, "When we keep up a good front most of the time, we often end up lying to ourselves as well as to everyone else.... The task of living fully is to elicit what is inside and to allow it to happen, not to invent something or build something outside ourselves."
Frederick Buechner, in The Sacred Journey, tells us, "Listen. Listen. Your life is happening. You are happening. The music of your life is subtle and elusive and like no other.... There is no chance thing through which God cannot speak.
(From Frederick Buechner, The Sacred Journey [San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1982], pp. 76, 77 and Eda J. LeShan, The Wonderful Crisis of Middle Age [New York: McKay, 1973].)
--Brauninger
