YOUR GRACE PLACE!

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending the Newark leg of the “How Sweet The Sound” tour (it’s a national gospel choir competition).  This year, the tour is being hosted by gospel song writer and producer Donald Lawrence, and gospel singer Yolanda Adams.  The judges are Erica Campbell of Mary Mary, Fred Hammond, Bishop Hezekiah Walker and CeCe Winans.  It was a night of great gospel music.  Even Yolanda Adams and the judges performed!  (CeCe Winans has one of the most beautiful voices in all of music in my opinion!) 

Anywho, at one point during the evening Donald Lawrence spoke to the audience about ‘embracing your grace place’.  His point, “When you find your true-grace place things just flow, provision finds you and doors just open.”

I’ve been wanting to blog about this grace place thing since that evening, but the more I thought about it the more questions I had.  The most nagging of which is “How do you find your grace place?” After all, you want to make sure you embrace the right thing. Right?  I mean, your grace place can’t just be something you’re good at.  There are people out there that are very very good at stealing cars. I wouldn’t think that would be their grace place!

So I took to scouring the internet!

Now I didn’t just go surfing willy nilly.  I made sure I had some idea of what I was looking for.  Some of the theological definitions of grace are: (1) the freely given, unmerited favor and love of God; (2) the influence or spirit of God operating in humans to regenerate and strengthen them.

So your grace place will be influenced by God, and presumably, be so pleasing to him that he rains down love, blessings, and opportunities upon you.  You know the “and God saw that it was good” moment.

Well that eliminates the car theft skill!

After days of surfing, I finally came across a sermon titled “Finding Your Grace Place” given by Pastor Obed Martinez of the Destiny Church in Indio, CA.  Pastor Martinez used the story of Jonah and the whale to make his point about finding your grace place.  If you’re like me, all you knew is Jonah ended up in the belly of a whale, and the whale eventually spit him out.  But what had happen was God gave Jonah a task to do, and Jonah left town because he didn’t want to do it.  He bummed a ride on a ship with some friends, and God brought a storm that scared the bewhosits out of everybody.  Jonah knew the other folks were in danger because of him so he jumped overboard and got swallowed by Moby Dick’s grandfather’s brother on his momma side.

 While I thought the sermon was good, it missed the mark for me.  After all, Jonah was told by God where to go and what to do and he was trying to run away from that.  I’m more interested in what if you don’t know what to do.  You don’t know what your assignment is.  Pastor Martinez did however provide some words of wisdom I feel are worth thinking about: 

(1)  God saved you from, so that he could save you for.

(2)  God rescued you so that you can become a rescuer.  But you were not rescued to be a savior.

(3)   God has given each of us an assignment.  When the enemy is attacking you he’s not attacking YOU but he’s attacking your assignment.

(4)  Most of our messes don’t come because of the devil, we give him too much credit.  Most of our messes come because we make decisions based on the pressure of the situation rather than the principles of God.

(5)  When you try to run away from your problems they will eventually show up in the place you ran to.  That is why you have to learn how to deal with your baggage.

(6)  You are never caught in something that can trap you.  God always has an exit strategy.

(7)  Even if you make a decision based on pressure, God will allow that circumstance to come around again so that you will then make a decision based on his principles.  What you think is denied is only delayed.  And the storm you had to go through was there to get you back in the position to make the right decision.

As I was gathering my thoughts for this blog, I was rethinking these words of wisdom from Pastor Martinez.  I now have other questions. (Is it me or does it seem like this spiritual journey has more questions than answers?)

The new questions that come to mind are: Am I supposed to find my grace place? Or does my grace place find me?  Is my assignment my grace place? When Jonah was in the whale’s belly did he eat sushi? Did Moby Dick’s hostility against little old men in boats come as a result of Jonah giving his grandfather’s brother on his momma side a belly ache?

???.....questions!…..questions!…..questions!

It is said that the way to get an answer to my question is to pray on it.

Now that I think about it, God seems to like that.  A LOT!! 

Hey! Could it be that praying - seeking the wisdom and guidance of God in our decision making - is our grace place? Could it be that to pray is embracing your grace place? And could it be that through prayer (our grace place) we learn God’s will (our assignment) for our lives?

Mmmmm…..something to pray on huh?