Family values...

"Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone." ~ Colossians 4:6

As I read this scripture this morning I chuckled out loud thinking, "Now this is a value from the Bible I wish our politicians would practice."

My politics are often polarized with my family, and so I keep my opinions to myself so that we experience a level of harmony we all enjoy. 

Often in America, at some point a politician will proclaim, "Let's restore the family values of the Bible."  It truly makes me laugh and wonder whether they have truly read it from cover to cover, and what some of their comments would truly be of they actually had. 

Although God's table can be a place for intimacy and conversation, it can also be a place where we experience many other things besides love. 

Years ago in his book, "Can You Drink the Cup?" Henri Nouwen  discusses how when we decide to pick up the cup of Christ we not only drink in love, but great suffering as well. It is as if every emotion and all of the experiences are sipped in and we experience them. 

Our experience is then joined with the gospel and what we then experience is without words. Grace is not only a noun but then becomes a verb that must be experienced. 

There are many things that can leave a bad taste in our mouths, starting with the remnants of the original taste of the forbidden fruit of the Garden, but for humanity the experience has left us changed forever. 

Practicing grace and listening to one another with love is something God does each day, and is what we should try to live as well.

Stay in God's grip!

​G. Todd Williams (c) 2017