ARE YOU A FRIEND OF GRACE?

 "You are salt of the earth ... You are the light of the world ..." - Matthew 5:12-16

Just in case you’re not on FACEBOOK I am sharing some new photos from Lynn Byers, our missionary in Haiti. Lynn is serving as a charge nurse in Adventiste Hospital in Port-au-Prince. She is living indeed as an authentic disciple on mission for Jesus. We pray regularly for this daughter of the church.
Many people admire Lynn, as well they should. We live in a constantly changing, difficult world. It is hard and harsh and unforgiving. It is no friend of grace.  Yet we who live by grace know that we need to be the friends of grace to hurting people all around us.
Have you spent time this Lenten season reflecting on your calling from God?  Last week at BURN we challenged the students to be salt and light. Salt is no good if it stays in the salt shaker.  You have to engage.  Light is at its best not in a room blazing with light but in a room where darkness predominates.  Even a small light will pierce the darkness.
Haddon Robinson once wrote an excellent book on the Sermon on the Mount called The Christian Salt and Light Company. From his reflections we see that being salt and light is a lifestyle that is intentional, strategic, and committed.  Lynn has chosen just such a lifestyle. Intentional she had worked to from a heart filled with compassion.  Strategically she has followed God’s prompting into a place of great darkness.  Her commitment has led her to set aside a solid, well-paying job at a hospital stateside, living in the tenuous and sometimes frustrating world of a third world hospital out post.  She speaks of it matter-of-factly and with passion.  And you can see the joy in her eyes.
So again, my challenge to each of us. Understanding that your call to take up your cross and follow Jesus may not take you out of the country. It may not place you in a place of poverty-compelled simplicity.  But if you are committed to intentionally following God’s leading, your work for Him will be strategic. It will be the place where someone’s deep need and God’s powerful transformation intersect and you will be the agent of eternal life change.

Don’t you deep down desire to be that friend of grace that you have experienced God’s grace to be?