I often get inspiration from other people – whether it comes from a conversation, a book I’ve read, a podcast I’ve listened to, a video I’ve seen, a sermon I’ve heard, or a song that strikes a chord with me and I feel so touched that I have to write about what it means to me. I come up with plenty of original and creative thoughts, but I’m so grateful for the ideas that come to me because of someone else’s touch on my life, and most of the time I don’t even know these people. For instance, Sara Groves will write a song like Hello Lord, or Going Home and I’ll be so undone by the words and wonder how she got into my head and heart, lived my life and knew exactly how I felt! Those words she wrote are MY exact same thoughts….I just didn’t know how to put them together in that way.
Today’s blog is inspired by an interview I saw recently by a young singer named Steffany Gretzinger who spoke about her inspiration for a new album she had recorded. It was an amazing interview and hit right at the heart of where I believe I am in life. The interview was about our “undoing“. That’s where I am these days….in the process of being undone. Undone of me, myself and I. It doesn’t happen all at once simply because I like to hold on to all three of those very important people….at least in my own mind they’re pretty important. There’s “me” again. Ugh. How does “me” walk hand in hand with grace? That, too, is part of the undoing.
You may have heard me say that this life of mine is a journey….a process. Part of that journey is God’s process of undoing us until we are one day reunited with the One who created us – when all the scales have fallen off, the cords and knots wrapping us up have come untangled, and we are undone of ourselves. Undone of our selfishness. Undone of our brokenness. Undone of me, myself and I. Undone of anything that gets in the way putting others first and glorifying the One who created me. I assumed that would come at the end of my life but Steffany helped me realized that it’s an ongoing un-doneness – it doesn’t just happen when you come sliding in cleats up in the Promise Land.
Learning grace is part of my undoing. I’ve learned that life lived is an undoing and life lived has seasons. There will be seasons of brokenness, seasons of joy, seasons of despair, seasons of growth, seasons of being misunderstood, seasons of pleasure, seasons of transformation, and seasons of truth. And during each season it will hurt when the BandAid peels away those ugly ME scabs with the undoing. OUCH. But God will lead us through this sometimes painful process of getting rid of all the things that constipate our life, and when we walk out the other side we will be rid of the ugliness that holds us back from great relationships and being great people, serving and blessing those around us.
Be patient with me – the stuff in this life that trips me up is just temporary. The flaws you see in me will one day be undone…some sooner than others depending on how “me-ish” I am on a particular day. At first the unraveling is hidden, but as God goes about the business of working all the kinks out gracefully and I’m being gently unwound all those temporary things will disappear and the eternal things that were born to be most apparent to others will be the only thing left in me after the undoing.
So there you have it. I’m in the process of being unwound and undone. If you see me spinning like a top and ugly things flying off – duck and get out of the way….and then throw your arms around me and whisper in my ear “there’s beauty in the process, Kris“. And just that idea brings me great pleasure for the process that I’m in. And thanks Steffany for showing me that the Promise Land is found IN the process…not at the end of it.
The Grace That Shapes My Life 