The Rhythms of Grace

I know this will come as a surprise to the 14 or 15 of you who actually read this blog on a quasi-regular basis, but I have been heavily influenced both personally and "professionally" by the writings of Eugene Peterson. 22 years ago I read, for the first time (but not the last time) his book, "Working the Angles-The Shape of Pastoral Integrity." In that book, Peterson wrote of a biblical reality, reflected throughout the Older Testament, that I have since tried to work into a daily experience. Like many disciplines, I have been sporadic, but when I am consciously aware of this biblical reality, my days are transformed.

"The Hebrew evening/morning sequence conditions us to the rhythms of grace. We go to sleep, and God begins his work. As we sleep he develops his covenant. We wake and are called out to participate in God's creative action. We respond in faith, in work. But always grace is previous. Grace is primary. We wake into a world we didn't make, into a salvation we didn't earn. Evening: God begins, without our help, his creative day. Morning: God calls us to enjoy and share and develop the work he initiated. Creation and covenant are sheer grace and there to greet us every morning. George MacDonald once wrote that sleep is God's contrivance for giving us the help he cannot get into us when we are awake.