Have you answered the question “So What?”

Whether you feel that you’ve been dealt a rotten hand, you’ve been slighted by someone, or you’ve been extraordinarily blessed, how will you answer the question: “So what?”

I recently participated as a speaker at a Christian men’s gathering on the topic of Grace. Various speakers addressed particular aspects of Grace, such as exuding Grace as a father, as a husband, and in your vocation. My topic focused on Grace for you (us). I should say, my topic evolved from not merely accepting Grace but putting it to good use.

Satan tends to do a fine job deceiving us into thinking we don’t deserve God’s Grace – His free gift of forgiveness through Christ. But did you catch that? God’s Grace is FREE. Of course we don’t deserve it, yet that’s the point. We are loved by God in that, while we were still sinners Christ died for us. – Romans 5:8. But sometimes the issue doesn’t stop there. Perhaps you are like me; I find myself wallowing happily in God’s Grace once I truly grasp the concept that I have it in the first place. What a wonderful gift! What an awesome thing that God would think of me individually, and wipe my slate of sin clean! End of story… right?

What happens the next time you face hardships? How engaged are you when your friend suffers? Is Grace alive and active in your heart during those moments of stress and weakness? Saint Paul shares a heart-felt transition which he experienced as a result of a hardship which he called a “thorn”:

Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. – 2 Cor 12:8-10

Did you catch that? Paul prayed not once but three times to remove the hardship and how did God respond? I too often can relate to Paul here. I prayed more frequently than just three times over Jacob’s 44 days in the NICU, believe me. My prayers matured over the course of that time and helped me to align my will with God’s Will. My prayers today do not seem to get answered quickly or in the way I want either. The hardships persist despite my best efforts to solve them individually and by way of prayer. Why? The answer God gave Paul is also His answer to us: Grace is sufficient; it gives us power in weakness.

How then can we sit idly by and rest on this thing called Grace when God Himself tells us that it has such power! I call this the “So What” question. In other words, if you tell me that you are blessed and that you find joy while living in His Grace, I’ll ask “So What?” That fact that we each are redeemed through Christ is in itself a miracle, a true gift from our loving Lord. He brings us back to Him despite our sinful condition. But that’s not the end of the power of this gift! If it reveals its true power in our weakness, imagine the power it can wield when we share it with our brother or sister who is experiencing a similar weak moment.

This sentiment is what has driven me to continue this blog, to share our story, and to give public speeches about it, more than two years after we lost Jacob. But it’s not about me, it is about a passionate inspiration to answer the question “So What”. We have experienced an event, the loss of a child, that the world commonly declares no parent should ever face. But isn’t it also true that this loss, this weakness, now affords us the strength through Grace to make a difference? In that way, we use this weakness as a powerful message to others that God is good all of the time.

Friends, your response to Grace is a blessing – an example for others. Never let the opportunities to share Grace slide by. Grace always abounds. Now, what are you going to do with it?