Sinking....

I wonder if I have made all the right choices.  Nothing life changing going on... just wondering if I have always made the right decisions for myself and my family.  I'm not talking about just recent decisions, I'm talking about being almost haunted by choices I made 5 years ago, 7 years ago, and even longer in some cases.  And I've come to realize GRACE....

So here's my breakdown on grace....

"if grace is an ocean, we're all sinking"

Ocean is defined by BrainyQuote.com as an immense expanse; any vast space or quantity without apparent limits or a large body of water.  When FreeDictionary.com talks about sinking it says sinking as it relates to a ship is to "go to the bottom of the sea or some other body of water because of damage or a collision."

Grace is ultimately something I just don't completely understand.  I think even Merriam-Webster had a hard time really putting it into a box with one label.... their website lists it as a "virtue coming from God, unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification, or a disposition to or an act or instance of kindness."

So let's talk about my definition breakdown of that line from the song "How He Loves Us".  We sing this song often but do we really grasp on to what the lyricist was trying to tell us about God's love?  God's grace is so massive in size that they compared it to an ocean which is by definition without limits.  But there's a twist in this writer's analogy.  He says we are all sinking... this word sometimes has a negative connotation to it.  (This is where I love to have the actual definition of words verses what I think they mean.)  From what we learned previously, sinking is to go to the bottom of the sea or some other body of water because of damage.  So basically, God's grace is immense and it swallows up the damaged.  Think about it.  We need God's grace because we are imperfect and because so often we are damaged vessels due to mistakes or storms of life.  But God acts instantly and swallows up our pain and mistakes with his grace.

No one said sinking in grace was easy.

Grace is given to us for our regeneration and sanctification.  Changing and growing are sometimes hard.  It forces us to look at ourselves and evaluate what we have done... sometimes to even check our motives.  Maybe we even feel guilty that God encompasses us with His grace despite our ship being beat to pieces by our own mistakes.  But here's the deal... God's grace is free, it's given in complete love for us, and He WANTS to swallow us up in His grace just as the ocean would swallow up a sinking ship.  Not to destroy us, but to allow grace to regenerate and sanctify all of us... that we would soak up His grace all the way through our very being.

"I don't have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way"

I don't have the time.... I refuse to spend my time thinking about what I should have done or what might have worked better.  God's grace and love are massive.  Massive enough to make up for all the things I might regret.  God has given me so much to work toward and so many to minister to that I can't sit and regret.  I must let his ocean of grace overtake me and I must sink in it.


Philippians 3:13-14 tells us, "Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."

Failed, I have done that... at least a thousand times.  God still loved me.... every time.

I will press on.  I won't look back.  I will sink in God's grace.