A Vision of Grace

The words were familiar, so familiar that I didn't really know what meant. So I asked. Lord, what does it mean to grow in grace. As I sat there on the porch I saw rather than heard the answer. In my mind I saw the radiant face of 81 year old Louis Zamperini carrying the Olympic Torch for the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.

Nagano, Japan was not far from the POW camp where he had been held during World War II. While there Louis had attempted to meet with the man who had been his chief and most brutal tormentor during his time as a prisoner. Just as he had carried the Olympic Torch in the relay he also wanted to carry the light of the world to the man who had so hatefully abused him. He came offering forgiveness. He could only do this because he had encounter the grace of Jesus Christ.

As I sat watching this vision in my mind I began to understand the meaning of growing in grace. Before Louise became a christian he was bound by hatred and haunting memories of the things he had endured at the hands of his captors. Though he was no longer a prisoner of war he was a prisoner of hatred and revenge. When he surrendered his life to the incarnate love of Jesus Christ he was truly free. Free to live, free to love, free to forgive.

Louis Zamperini was a man of unusual strength. He was an Olympic runner. He survived 47 days on a raft after his plane crashed. He survived the brutal treatment he encountered at the POW camps in Japan. He was a man of unusual strength. However, his greatest accomplishment in life was done not by might or power but by the Spirit of God. Louis grew in grace by accepting the challenge to do what he could only do by the grace of God. He went back to Japan carrying the message of forgiveness and the salvation of Jesus Christ.

How do you grow in grace? This had been my question asked in prayer. The answer came with a vision of someone who had not only been willing to forgive those who had tormented him but had also been willing to share with them love incarnate. Now it is my turn how to I make the love of Jesus concrete and real to those who have wounded or hurt me and those I love? I know for sure I cannot do it in my own strength but as I surrender to the grace of God. When I give myself to be a prisoner of Jesus Christ I choose to live my life for his purposes and not my own. I choose to accomplish his will by growing in grace.