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This is a tale of grace.
It is Sunday morning, and I am driving to a speaking engagement. That is not an unusual thing. Well, it is a little unusual these days but in the totality of my life, it is not. Hundreds of times, I have done that very thing early on a Sunday morning. I drove to where I was scheduled to speak, arrived before anyone else, and spent a couple of hours reflecting, preparing, and praying.
Back then it was grace
Sometime around mid-morning, people begin arriving, each coming from their place, physically and spiritually, seekers for truth, hope, inspiration, and belonging. I will represent God and His Word to them. I will expose them to biblical truths. I will invite them to the place where love and grace abound and tell them how to get there. That is my intention. That is my calling. That is my joy.
Now it is works
This morning, though, I am not going to church. I am going, instead, to address an excited group of starry-eyed dreamers who will take the Texas adjuster license test today. They have spent three days in our facility preparing themselves for this test. For too many, the adjuster life seems like a road to easy money. The truth is this: more will not make a living as an adjuster than will. I have come to tell them how it really is, what it really takes to make it.
I will share Roman senator and philosopher Seneca’s famous quote: “Luck is when opportunity meets preparation.”
I will share Abraham Lincoln’s quote about the woodsman: “If you give me six hours to chop down a tree, I will spend the first four sharpening my axe.”
I will tell them that opportunity in this industry often only knocks once. How you respond to that opportunity will have everything to do with how you progress. I will tell them to take advantage of the instruction we have to offer at Adjust U.
Some will take me seriously because they take this decision to become an adjuster seriously and they are determined to succeed. Others will not.
That is how it is in this world. Work ethic, grit, determination, and good fortune (or blessing, if you will) separate the haves from the have-nots, the doers from the dreamers.
Now and then and forever, it is grace!
But in that other world, it is a different story. All the works you can muster will never win God’s favor.
For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.
Ephesians 2:8-10 (Berean Study Bible)
All the good you can do will never be good enough. In that world, the only wood-chopping that mattered was the Roman craftsman who chopped down a tree to fashion the Cross upon which Jesus died.
The only bank there is the Bank of Grace and the only currency is Faith.
The only bank there is the Bank of Grace and the only currency is Faith.
The JourneyMan
I used to tell that story on a Sunday morning. That is the story of Jesus. It is still my story, and I am sticking to it.
TELL ME THE STORY OF JESUS
Tell me the story of Jesus write on my heart every word
Tell me the story most precious sweetest that ever was heard
Tell how the angels in chorus sang as they welcomed his birth
Glory to Thy in the highest peace and the tidings to earthTell me the story of Jesus
Tell of the cross where they nailed him right in the anguish and pain
Tell of the grave where they laid him tell how he lived it again
(Tell me the story so tender clearer than ever I see
Still let me weep while you whisper love great and grand some for me)Tell me the story of Jesus
David T. Clydesdale / Fanny Crosby / John R. Sweney
THAT OTHER PLACE
The JourneyMan
In that other place
Where all that works is grace
Where every sin-debt is erased
Where selfish ambition is misplaced
Where every hopeful sees His face
On the trophy that reads “First Place”
Glory and Victory are commonplace
But all that amazes is Amazing Grace
Grace is a harder pill to swallow than you think. For us Home Depot mind-setters who appreciate phrases like, “Where do-ers get things done,” it is hard to accept something that is already completely finished, something that does not require our effort or achievement, where even our faith is His gift to us. To this, I say, “Keep that get-things-done mindset everywhere you go, except to Calvary. There, the work is finished and you can only stay if you rest in the finished work of Jesus Christ.
Sola Gracia!
Gene