BEYOND
The odyssey of grace
There’s no scarcity of metaphors for life. Life as food. (Box of chocolates, anyone?) Life as sport. But how about life as story? Would your life fit neatly into a
category? Would it read as a mystery? Adventure? Docudrama? Love story? It
certainly is not a fairy tale, right? Neither is ours.
Upon being drawn to Calvary Church in the summer of 2012 we immersed ourselves into its culture. People were not just letting the weekly teaching bounce
off of them and walk away unchanged. I could hear them talking about it days
later at church events, praying through ways the Spirit wanted them to apply
the teaching to their own lives.
We became members at the first opportunity and began serving in the Calvary
community. But soon after our arrival, our two teenage sons both dealt with
serious and sustained health afflictions that resulted in a dark time of testing
for our family. The easy thing to do would have been to pull back. But we didn’t.
Encouraged by the prayers of our Bible Study group, community group, and the
women’s GPS leadership team, we pressed forward. Each week we awoke on
Sunday with anticipation for how the Holy Spirit was going to move during the
morning service.
I began noticing changes in my husband. Though he had been following Jesus
for many years and had many good spiritual habits, he had stagnated. Coming
to Calvary caused a spiritual awakening in him that affected our whole family.
His attentiveness to the Spirit grew as did his hunger for the Word of God. We
both craved the truth of Hebrews when Pastor Jim taught through that book.
We were on an amazing journey of faith and the expository teaching helped us
to hold fast to the hope we professed.
Grace Beyond is about
building more than
a church, it’s about
building a gracious
people. For more
information, visit
gracebeyond.org.
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In December of 2014, the Lord laid on both our hearts a change for our family
was coming. Daily we would come together to lift this before the Throne of
Grace. For six months we prayed, even though Tom was extremely fearful of
what the change may be. Every day he asked God the same thing. “Lord, please
make me ready for the change.” It truly is God who writes our story because no
earthly mind could imagine the chain of events that followed.
When July of 2015 arrived, I was trying to get my mind off of my health issues
and concerns for the harshness of the coming winter which would adversely
affect my auto-immune disease. My thoughts shifted to Luke, 16, who in recent months had become bitter toward God about the circumstances He had
allowed in his life concerning his health. His anger was escalating and we were
gravely concerned. But God arranged for Luke not to get a summer job, to de-