Journeying to Grace

The Creative Writing class I was in my senior year of high school was responsible for producing the school’s annual literary magazine which was published in the spring with the yearbook. Many of us in that class were also on the school yearbook and newspaper staffs. For both of those, creativity and imagination were certainly needed when it came to design and layout, but producing them was a fairly straight-forward and structured process. Making the literary magazine required a different kind of focus, thoughtfulness, and openness. Several times during the school year, we entered our classroom and found, written in perfect cursive on the dark green chalkboard, the message ‘go in search of _______.’ The word in the blank was different each time, but when we read this message on the board, it meant our Creative Writing teacher would not be in class that day, and we were to write a poem, essay, or reflection on the given topic. So, if the message was ‘go in search of trees,’ our assignment was to write something unique and thought-provoking about trees and bring it to the next class.

I was grateful we were given a topic to work with. I wouldn’t have known where to start if I had to come up with something worthy on my own. There’s just too much to choose from. Even now, I wouldn’t mind being given a ‘topic’ I should intentionally focus on and give more prayer and thought to. There are so many things going on in our world, our communities, our families and with friends. Where do we start? Is there anything we need to ‘go in search of’ to create more peace in our hearts, strengthen our spirit, and be good stewards of God? And as we go in search, is there anything in our hearts preventing us from fully knowing God’s merciful love and grace? Maybe it’s forgiving someone who has hurt us; maybe it’s asking for forgiveness ourselves; maybe it’s not having complete trust in the path ahead of us. Maybe it’s something the Lord desires to show us.

We know we start our search in the friendship of Jesus, with deep prayer, and with faithful focus, and when we are open to what the search brings, we will know the peace that only God can give us. “You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.” (Jer 29:13) With focused, thoughtful, and open hearts, let us pray in faith that we always go in search of what leads us to truly knowing the love, peace, and hope of God.