Grace upon Grace

Introduction

We live in a world where there is explosion of noise, and so many options to choose from. The Television alone has about 189 cable TV channels. Unsuspecting consumers are bombarded with so many ads; it is almost impossible to makes a sound decision. There seems to be continuous news of world catastrophe, a child molested. Refugees fleeing from war. Broken families. Then talk about the throw away culture; fast food, fast marriage, and everything else seems disposal. All these can bring a weariness of spirit and confusion, unless we find something profound to direct our choices, focus our attention and fill our lives.

This book is an attempt to offer a sense of direction, and share some practical ways to center our lives, during this year of year of mercy. At a deeper level, it’s a sharing, a prayer from a seekers heart to another seekers heart. It is easy to identify with the Michelangelo’s non-finito statue1 of the trapped prisoner. According to Michelangelo, the sculptor is a tool God uses simply to reveal the already magnificent figures existing in the marble. The sculptor task is to cut away the excess, to reveal. It’s further hypothesized that non-finito represents the eternal struggle of human being to free themselves from material trappings. This endless struggle of man to free himself from his physical control is a symbol of the flesh burdening the soul. The prisoner seems to be calling to the artist (God) to set him free. This is so true in our lives we spent most of time reading all the self-help books, motivational, inspirational and better yourself books because we have figured out that the challenge of being the perfect self we were meant to be has nothing to do with the external circumstances we find ourselves. It is the internal struggles which are tough to overcome. If we follow Michelangelo’s thought, we have all our perfection within ourselves; we just need to chip away all the imperfections we have accumulated to reveal the finest self from within.

God has said that he created us in his image and likeness. He is the king; we are the princes and princess of the almighty God. But what do we do? We spent our time running around in dirty like chicken, while we should be flying high like the eagle.

Again we are like drums, and God is the one beating the drums. Drums have no business resisting and protesting about the rhythms be produced. The drum responds to the drummer. And finally we are like a pen in calligraphy; the penmanship will produce this beautiful writing using a brush. We are like the marble, the brush and the drum, if we let God, like an artist; He will reveal our authentic self.

My may God continue to surround you with his love and light as you go through this pages.