Grace Strikes Us

Guest Blog by
Rev. John Goodwin, HR
Potosi Presbyterian Church
Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America Vice-Chair
Presbytery Committee on Nomination

When I was young there were very few things that happened in life that said I was valued, of importance, accepted, even liked.   It was difficult beginning adulthood without the benefit of support and role models, and without healthy self-esteem.  It was certainly a time without much light.  I’m pretty sure that others would have described me as a mess.  Scary thing, I might still be there, if not for a Presbyterian pastor, a Presbyterian congregation, and Presbyterian polity.

Everything changed suddenly when a brilliant, highly educated, and wise minister talked with me like I was someone of worth.  Beyond that, this pastor spoke honestly and truthfully, and with grace.  Imagine that, I thought.  Further, my experience with that little Presbyterian Church was more rewarding than I could have imagined.  They too seemed to care about me – that I was there.  Not as a number on the rolls.  Not as someone to do something for them.  It was more like, here is someone we can care about and can care about us.

They did put me to work.  They accepted me as a ruling elder.  And that is where I found out that I’d (or I believe God) made the right choice.  As an elder, I found that I loved Presbyterian polity, where we are all valued and accepted.

And that brings me to why the Presbyterian church and its people and polity have been so important and valuable to me.   It was in seminary that I discovered Paul Tillich, specifically The Shaking of the Foundations. There I found the words that have given me so much hope in life:

“Grace strikes us when we are in great pain and restlessness.  It strikes us when we walk through the dark valley of a meaningless and empty life.  It strikes us when we feel that our separation is deeper than usual because we have violated another life, a life which we have loved, or from which we were estranged.  It strikes us when our disgust for our own being, our indifference, our weakness, our hostility, and our lack of direction and composure have become intolerable to us.  It strikes us when, year after year, the longed-for perfection of life does not appear, when the old compulsions reign within us as they have for decades when despair destroys all joy and courage.   Sometimes at that moment, a wave of light breaks into our darkness, and it is as though a voice were saying: “You are accepted.  You are accepted, accepted by that which is greater than you…Do not try to do anything now; perhaps later you will do much.  Do not seek for anything; do not perform anything; do not intend anything.  Simply accept the fact that you are accepted.  If that happens to us, we experience grace.”

I didn’t know it at the time, but the grace of the Presbyterian church has been like the light of Christ to me.  And I find this very appropriate, since the first century, as Christians, we await the advent of the true Light in prayer and liturgy, as they, and we, proudly and humbly pray, “maranatha,” Our Lord, come!”

We begin to celebrate a season of waiting, anticipation, and preparation that can be seen as a season of hope and joy.  It is so reassuring to me to know that there is someone (or many someone’s), whose light may have grown dim, and who will find within the Presbyterian Church, grace through acceptance.

Christ has come! Christ is risen! Christ will come again!

Rev. John Goodwin, HR
Potosi Presbyterian Church
Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America Vice-Chair
Member of the Committee on Nomination