Not too long ago my office got a furniture upgrade. The upgrade not only included a leather couch and some fun pillows for my clients but an oversized leather chair for myself. And by oversized I mean if I sit up and back in the chair my feet don’t touch the ground, they don’t even come close to touching it. I call the chair my Alice in Wonderland chair.
If you’re familiar with the film, you’re familiar with the scene when Alice drinks the bottle marked “drink me” and begins to shrink, and all that was once normal around her seems unusually large. In fact if you are familiar with the film and it’s sequel, Through the Looking Glass, the journey that Alice embarks on in both tales is full of shifting. All that she had once been certain of becomes less certain, and even she, whether smaller, larger, or her normal size, at times becomes less certain.
While my name is not Alice, and the only thing I’m especially good at shrinking is usually my bank account or a pint of Ben & Jerry’s chocolate chip ice cream, I am just as familiar with uncertainty. I’d love to say that I’m so graceful with it, but I’m not. The bible verses about God’s good plans remain very much in the bible and not my head or heart. The encouragement from friends, parents, siblings, and my favorite guy go in one ear, try really heard to stay in my head, and yet seem to go right on out the other ear. The catchy choruses from the songs that should amp up my you got this girl spirit don’t. I do not have the eye of the tiger, maybe more like eye of the caterpillar. This is not my fight song, it’s more of an alright circumstance get moving along song. Grace starts to look less sufficient, but it’s not. Read that again, focus on the it’s not part.
Uncertainty is good at misconstruing things. It has a knack for seeping into the things we were once so very certain of and making them seem unworthy of our faith, our confidence, our trust. Grace however, doesn’t budge.
Uncertainty starts coming for grace and then stops dead in its tracks. It’s no match for the consistency or the abundance that grace has for us. Grace reminds us that there are more things we can be certain of than not. Grace reminds us that when we don’t feel beautiful, we are still fearfully and wonderful made (Psalm 139:14). When the heartache feels like the end, we still have a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11). When we feel like we’ve got nothing, we actually have every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3). When we feel super alone, we’re not, in fact God in all of His grace makes sure we’re never alone (Deuteronomy 31:6).
Maybe the promotion at work is getting larger but the support from your new boss is shrinking. Maybe you’ve been staying above that 3.0 GPA and the statistics class has you teetering on a 2.__. Maybe adjustment to parenthood with child number two isn’t even close to your experience with your first and you’re wondering if you were really cut out for this. Maybe you’re biggest client has decided to go in a different direction forcing you to consider the direction of your company. Maybe the lay off and the unemployment funds are coming to an end as is your energy to apply for new jobs. Maybe your significant other has expressed their own doubts to you about the relationship and it has awakened fears of unworthiness that you thought you’d long laid to rest. Whatever it is that has you feeling uncertain, know that you can expect grace to be certain, and for it to be certain of you. Whatever has you wandering in the land of your life, you don’t have to wonder about grace, it will be there and it will be there in abundance.
With Love,
Grit + Grace