distress and peril

Lord, I pray to you in peril because of my distress and in distress because of my peril.

I often lose track of myself. Sometimes, I forget: “How did I get myself in this situation?” When I try to recall what happened, I sense I am refashioning the narrative. I assure myself that I am not rewriting history, but deep inside I know the game I’m playing.

Hear the gospel: Grace Is The Story.

Sometimes, we become distressed because of something we did. Sometimes, we become distressed because of something that was done to us. In either case, God knows your distress; he sees that we are in danger and it doesn’t matter to him if we got ourselves there or if someone else got us there. Either way, he sees. We don’t need to sort it all out. We don’t need to rewrite the story.

We can’t rewrite the story anyway because Grace Is The Story and it is His Story. Because he never changes, he will never change His Story. Grace shall be his eternal theme.

Because it is His theme, it is our theme. Stop trying to keep track of who, what, when, where and why. What does it matter, anyway? In the fire of his grace, all incidentals are burned up. There is only one Event. It is the moment of God’s grace and it is an eternally present moment.

Forgive or be forgiven. Which is it? If the latter, receive it. If the former, let it go. You don’t need to keep track anymore. Just let it go and know that God’s love is enough. Now: you’re saved from peril that leads to distress and distress that leads to peril. There is only God and his grace. Rejoice.

When I said, "My foot is slipping," your love, O LORD, supported me. -Psalm 94:18