Experiencing Amazing

I’m experiencing amazing right now as I write.

The soundtrack from the movie “Driveways” is playing in the background as I’ve been working on a sermon at my standup desk in the lower level of our house. The music matches this beautiful, simple movie perfectly and goes right to my heart. It’s actually hard to hold it together as the music and two of my grandchildren and a friend play quietly around me.

Normally I’d move to another room for greater quiet and less interruptions, or I’d put in my AirPods so I can concentrate.

And I would have missed amazing—a welling up in my heart of love for these kids, their beauty, and the privilege of having them here right now.

I share this with you because I want to tell you about our next series starting Sunday—”Experiencing Amazing (A Study of Jonah).”

The amazing is grace.

But Jonah has lost sight of God’s grace for him, so he’s also lost sight of his mission to spread the message of the love and grace of God to people who are far from God, even enemies of God and of God’s people.

This is a story continued in the life and ministry of Jesus.

God’s people had lost sight of the mission. Jesus seeks to re-engage them by demonstrating what the mission looks like—loving, healing, proclaiming the gospel, and being with, even befriending, “tax collectors and ‘sinners.’”

Why do we lose sight of our mission? Because we lose sight of the amazingness of grace.

My prayer for this series is that it will become the soundtrack that leads us to experience amazing all over again and in deeper ways.

Amazing grace!