Did you ever dream a dream in the middle of the day? Have you ever found you’re lost, having to go, wanting to stay?

Those are the first lines from a ‘poem’ I wrote as a teenager about Sandy, the young lady I lusted after then, and the love of my life over all the many years since.

Have you ever found you’re lost, having to go, wanting to stay? Have you ever wandered into something new and resisted leaving? You found yourself wanting to linger a while, to relish the aromas, the colors, the joy? That’s how I felt (and feel) about the girl who would become my life partner, friend and lover.

It is also how I have felt about the life we have lived together over the last 50 years. I long to linger there, in the different rooms of our lives. We loved and raised our family – kids and grands. We are exploring our Lord’s creation. And we worship Him. I love the joy we have found in each and long to linger there, reluctant to leave.

As I am continuing to read the Book of Acts, I recently found myself fascinated by Acts 13:42-43, “As Paul and Barnabas were going out, the people kept begging that these things might be spoken to them the next Sabbath. Now when the meeting of the synagogue had broken up, many of the Jews and of the God-fearing proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, were urging them to continue in the grace of God.”

They were ‘urging them to continue in the grace of God’. When you look at the underlying words in the original language I think this might be an appropriate rendering: Paul and Barnabas were trying to persuade them to linger in the grace and kindness of God.

Oh, how I love that. I love God’s grace. Perhaps you’ve seen the movie Amazing Grace, which tells the story of the campaign in the late 1700’s against the slave trade in the British Empire, led by William Wilberforce. In it John Newton, author of the song Amazing Grace, says to Wilberforce, “Although my memory’s fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.” (Click here for that scene in YouTube  Amazing Grace).

For several years now Newton’s words have been my own – I too am a great sinner and Christ is my great Savior. What enables a powerful and righteous God to bend down from glory and touch a great sinner’s life? It’s grace, my friend. Tis all of grace.

Yes, I love grace and I often – often – pause to linger there, to wallow in His unmatched kindness, goodness and grace; to relish the aromas, the light and the joy of His love. For I AM a GREAT sinner, yet the grace of God has restored all of us who are believers to the possibility of a daily, living, real relationship with Himself.

Did you ever dream a dream in the middle of the day? Have you ever found your lost, having to go, wanting to stay?

If not, let me encourage you, let me try to persuade you to discover and linger in the grace and kindness of God. I have found Him to be more than amazing.