Earlier this Spring, my wife and I stopped at Graceland on our way farther West. We toured the house and grounds, and, while I’m not a huge Elvis fan, it was very interesting to step into his life for a couple of hours. Toward the end of the tour we left the trophy room and went outside. As we rounded the corner of the trophy room on our way to Elvis’ grave, I noticed several ants running through the crack of the sidewalk. They were busily going about their everyday business, completely oblivious of the multitude of tourists stepping over them. One of my first thoughts was that I had paid to get into Graceland and here they were running about for free. I know that’s rather shallow, but that’s just the way I think sometimes. These ants had no idea that they were on the grounds of one of the most famous landmarks in America. Graceland has over 600,000 visitors each year, is one of the five most visited home tours in the United States, and is the most famous home in America after The White House. And here were hundreds of ants just going about their business without once giving any little ant thoughts to where they were.
I think we do the same thing sometimes. As Christians, we live in another world. At the risk of sounding spooky, we live in another dimension. A spiritual dimension. We sometimes live as these ants do. We go about our daily routine without even once stopping to consider where we live. We take for granted that we are children of God. We take for granted the special privileges that we have because of our relationship with God. It’s become second nature for us. We’ve lived here for so long that we no longer stop to consider who we are or where we live. I’d like to take a couple of minutes to remind us ants of some of the privileges of living at Grace-land.
Prayer. Something so simple, and yet something so powerful, that we often take for granted. Personally, I’m not one of those guys who can pray for hours at a time. But I do pray consistently throughout the day and usually never stop to consider what it means to be able to communicate with God. I can personally talk to the creator of everything, and guess what? He even communicates back with me. How awesome is that, and yet, I tend to take prayer for granted. Ancient civilizations had all kinds of rituals that they hoped would allow them to communicate with their gods. Some relied on prophets to mediate between them and their gods. The ancient Maya practiced bloodletting as a form of communication with their gods. All we have to do is speak. There is someone with the power to do anything that is asked of Him. And I know Him. And I ask a lot. What a privilege to be able to communicate with God.
Worship. We tend to place a lot of emphasis on celebrity in our culture. An opportunity to actually meet a celebrity in person is an experience that emotionally overwhelms some people. Yet too often we take for granted an opportunity to meet God in our worship. Those of us who have had the experience of discovering the presence of God in worship are often left hungry when our Sunday morning worship experiences fail to take us where our previous encounters have. And yet, we have an opportunity to come into the presence of God every day if we choose. We don’t have to wait for a Sunday worship service. In fact, some of my most memorable times of worship have not been in a church service. How often do we overlook the opportunity that we have to spend time with Almighty God? Do we realize what a privilege it is to be able to spend time with Him in our worship?
Grace. Grace is misunderstood by a lot of people because it’s not an intuitive response for many of us. Justice says we get what we deserve. Mercy says we don’t get what we deserve. Grace says we get what we don’t deserve. For a Christian, that means that not only do I not receive the punishment for my sin that I deserve, but I receive good things that I don’t deserve. I receive favor. For you bless the righteous, O Lord; you cover him with favor as with a shield. Psalm 5:12. Favor, according to the dictionary, is an attitude of approval or liking. What that means to us Christians is that God treats us as though he likes us, not just loves us. Those of us who have been married for a while can relate to this. While we were dating, we did everything right, because we wanted to impress our dates. We bought cards to send her for no reason at all. We bought her flowers just because. We took her on dates where she wanted to go. Even as newlyweds we treated our new spouse as though we not only loved them, but we liked them. We did things for them that we didn’t have to do. We could get by with McDonald’s, but we opted for Olive Garden. We held hands. We watched shows on TV that they wanted to watch. Over time, as the newness wore off, we tended to become a little more selfish. We started to watch what we wanted to watch. We no longer buy flowers just because. We remember to buy cards the night before, or maybe the day of, our anniversary. Grace never wears off. God’s favor means that we get “flowers” for no reason at all. Maybe we get physical flowers, or maybe we get the parking spot right in front of our destination. Maybe we need a TV and find one that was ordered and never claimed and is being sold at half price. Maybe we drop a jar of mayonnaise from the top shelf and it hits the floor and doesn’t break. Maybe we deserve to die because of our sin and instead get to live forever. Grace. God’s way of giving us what we don’t deserve.
Hope. The best that a non-Christian can hope for is short-term successes. I’m not saying that non-Christians are not successful. Most of the world’s richest people are not Christians. But what hope do they have for a future? None beyond themselves. Christians have hope beyond ourselves. And yet we tend to take it for granted. We will never die. Eternity is something that we can’t get our heads around, but we have hope because of it. We have hope for things that are beyond ourselves and our own abilities. The Bible says that “…we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” How often do we consider the hope that we have? How often do we consider what it means to have hope. We tend to take for granted that we do have a hope for not only our future, but our present.
There is so much more. The Bible. Consider that we have the Word of God readily available to us today more than at any other time in history. Church. A place to be challenged and loved. A place to worship with other believers. Peace. The knowledge that God is in control of every situation. Even those we don’t readily understand. God has our back.
Too many of us have lost the wonder and awe of being Christians. We’re no different from those who don’t know Christ. We complain about what we don’t have without realizing what we do have. We take for granted the presence of God. We take for granted communication with God. We take for granted life with God. We get so used to His favor, that we don’t even realize that it is favor anymore. We almost have an entitlement attitude. How often do we go on about our lives without once thinking about where we live? We’re living in Grace-land. A land of God’s grace. We have been adopted by God. We are His children. Let’s get back the wonder and awe that is Christianity.