I began reading Anne Lamott's book Traveling Mercies again today. I love Anne and her heart and her openness about her brokenness and how she is able to see how Father's grace is always helping her along. Is this life hidden in Christ really about much more? I think everything flows from this reality.
I'm tired of moral codes and the notion that enforcing law sets anyone free and I'm no longer compelled to apologize for not being on the fear based conformity bandwagon. It's grace that people need help in understanding and Anne just helps draw me into the messy nature of people's lives to see grace at work...especially the lives of people that have grown up in environments much different than my own. Who knows, maybe I would have been a drunk, a drug addict, a flaming liberal, a Muslim, a Communist or a thief, to name a few possibilities, had I been born somewhere else to different parents and shaped by a different environment? These might be barriers humans rarely desire to cross over if they are vastly different experiences than what they have ever been exposed to....but Jesus knows no barriers and grace and love have no rivals. They cross over.
I remember hearing Anne once say that God must have very low standards....if he can accept someone like her. I'm left with nowhere to stand but in agreement with Anne because I am certain she is safe within the arms of our Father and I am certain he loves her very much and is showering her with his grace and affection along the way healing her brokenness. My life story looks different than Anne's but she and I are very much alike...in need of and counting on Father's grace.
Anne shares this quote from Eugene O'Neill's in Traveling Mercies.
"Man is born broken. He lives by mending. The grace of God is the glue."
I have linked to this before and it is an interview from 2006 from Grace Cathedral but here it is again.
3 comments:
Wow. I just love that quote!
me too
I relistened to this interview last night, Kentster. Ahh, what she said on grace - just beautiful. I love the way she is just herself, so open, so fearless because of that openness but oh, so vulnerable because of it too. She is wonderful and I look forward to reading more of her stuff. I've read Travelling Mercies I think, and read Bird by Bird when it first came out. She is a refreshing drink of water, that's for sure.
I might even go back and listen again ... sometimes third listens bring up things you didn't hear even the second time (and then I can write down those lovely things she said about grace)
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