The grace of a day

During lockdown, I’ve periodically taken a ‘break’ from the regular structure I’ve put in place for each week to have a ‘retreat week’. Retreat has been a practice that I felt God challenge me with many years ago, and around 4 years ago (prompted by the Arrow Leadership Programme that I was participating in) I actually got round to doing it. The truth was, it was an assignment on the course. Yes, the assignment was take some time on retreat! If you’ve not discovered a rhythm of retreat in your life, let this be the season where you find a way to build it in – even if for just a morning each month or two.

While on this recent retreat (which of course was spent in the same four walls as every other day) I was reminded of this amazing interview that I’d watched a couple of years ago, with author of bestselling novel The Shack, Paul Young. If you’ve got time, DEFINITELY watch this interview – it’ll be worth your time!

I realised, I don’t live in the grace of a day. I’m always trying to control the future. Early on in lockdown, as the disappointment of losing my plans for ministry trips abroad set in, I thought to myself ‘The future seems much less certain now.’ Then popped into my head the reply: ‘The future is as certain as it’s always been.’ 

Because the truth is, actually, none of us knows what is going to happen tomorrow, or next week, or next year. Of course we have to make plans and get on and do stuff, but the idea that it’s certain is pure illusion. Or at least, the idea that it’s certainly going to be as we imagine is pure illusion. The future is no less certain than it’s always been – it’s always uncertain from our perspective. But from God’s perspective, it’s as certain as ever. He’s not taken aback.

Revelation tells us that Jesus is the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world. From before that ill-fated day when an apple met Eve’s lips, there was already a plan for redemption. In fact, in a sense the sacrifice had already been made – because to love is a sacrifice that will always cost eventually. Jesus’s destiny was already sealed as the Lamb who was slain, before a day ever came to be. Father, Jesus and Holy Spirit are as certain about the future as they’ve always been.

And so what does this mean for us? Paul Young, in the interview above, describes how having gone through a lengthy and unimaginably painful process of de- and re-construction in his inner life and relationships, he and his family then lost all their financial security. Living in crowded accommodation and working three jobs, he describes how:

“Joy had become a constant companion. That’s what happens when you live inside the grace of a day. You don’t run away from joy. We are so geared to be future trippers. That’s what we do when we can’t trust. We create imaginations that don’t exist and we spend real grace that was given for us for today on things that don’t exist.”

Jesus is detoxing me from being a future tripper. In this season, not much planning has been possible. So I am forced to change the way I live. To begin to live in the grace of a day.

In this time, I think Holy Spirit is giving us an invitation – to not worry about tomorrow. To allow today’s grace to minister to our needs today, trusting that because His mercies are new every morning, there’s gonna be new grace for tomorrow. 

So may you leave the life of being a future tripper, and discover the grace to be fully present in today, whatever comes.

And I’d appreciate your prayer as I seek to move into whatever is next, but not rushing ahead, rather taking one step at a time. I’d love to know if you’ve been discovering the grace of a day – let me know in the comments below!