When I Found Grace in the Valley

Last semester I picked up on Ann Voskamp's expression, "All is grace" and really began noticing what that actually meant. I've always been told that grace means getting something we do not deserve. Like the redemption from Jesus going to the cross. Grace. Everyday. Waking to new mercies and a new day. Grace. In the air we breath. Grace. It is in the sweet words from a friend, in the beauty of the flowers, in the hardships that bring us humbly to our Father. Grace.

And then I moved to Kenya. 

The Lord used my time in Kenya to unveil to me even more how sweet the sound of grace is. Everywhere we went, redemption and grace shone. In the ministries, in the stories and in the people we met. When we quite literally sang "Amazing Grace" with women who had found themselves in prostitution but have come and tasted the freedom and lavishing love of our Savior. I mention all the time about the brokenness, death and injustice...but in that there are so many stories of redemption.
I can't even put into words how empowering it is to see the grace to evident. People might wonder how I can say there is so much beauty in the brokenness. But it is in the joy that the people choose even when all else is falling apart. The smiles, laughter and big hugs. It is in the faith they depend their whole life on. It is in the simplicity that the Gospel is, yet the earth-shaking power it has.

Since I don't feel like my words are very worthy of sharing, and since I cannot take you all to Kenya, I will share this video of a woman that one of our Love Africa staff members made...
This woman's name is quite literally Grace and she is the Vice-chairman of the IDP camp we visit. This woman is a rock and her testimony is huge. She use to have a nice shop she ran, a town and stable place to raise her family...but when the 2007 elections happened and she did not vote for who her neighbors voted for, she was chased from her home with just the clothes on her back. Now this community is displaced and in the midst of poverty. I've hugged this woman's neck and been encouraged by her words for weeks. Now I'll let you meet her (it's worth your time):

Grace's story here. 

And you know what, she tells us how she has forgiven the people that burned her home and killed her friends...because of the grace that was shown to her on the cross, she extends that grace to even her enemies. 

In Kenya there are the infamous acacia trees (or "Africa trees").
Three things I did not know about these trees before Kenya:
1. there are a couple different type of acacia trees
2. they have huge huge huge detrimental thorns on them
3. their thorns were believed to be used for the crown of thorns Jesus had on the cross

Having seen these thorns, I'm blown away imagining that made into a crown and placed on Jesus' head. They are huge and sharp (I mean I don't know what I had in mind when I use to think of the crown of thorns, like I knew it wasn't a wreath of cotton) but these thorns put things into perspective in a whole new way. Also, you should also know that acacia trees (especially these "Yellow Barked Acacia's") were everywhere we went. And to me, it became another way that God made His grace so visible. Every time I saw the thorns I thought of the cross and the brutal sacrifice of our Savior. He took on these thorns so we would not have to. 

Amazing grace.
 
Above I said how it is hard to sometimes understand how to see the beauty and grace in broken situations but I think about these thorns. These thorns are harsh, sharp, I even called them detrimental before and they caused blood shed, which is messy - I think of that as the brokenness, hardship, messy, detrimental things in life. But these thorns also scream grace to me. I see a Savior. I also see how life can come from death.

And here we are, back at the Gospel. That simple yet earth-shattering Gospel I mentioned. Because the Gospel is grace. And the Gospel and grace should be infused into our every day and every movement. Because what else do we have to live for? And having just spent 10 weeks surrounded by poverty, I know in confidence that when all else fades, and you lose everything else...the Gospel remains.

And it is calling you and me, the richest and poorest. It is never too far from anyone. Or as I've found from 22 years of living in the midst of Christianity, too close (in the sense that we speak and hear of it so often that we take it for granted or forget to the power of it).

Grace abounds and all is grace. So friends, walk in grace today.

For by grace you have been saved through faith.
And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.
– Ephesians 2:8, ESV