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Three years ago, our family headed to a News-boys concert at the Minnesota State Fair. After finding our seats, Davis, our six-year-old, said, "Dad, I gotta go to the bathroom." They scrambled down bleachers, waited in line, and within minutes were back cheering along with everyone else. Twenty minutes later, Davis needed another bathroom trip. Then another. Seven trips later, my frustrated husband and I shook our heads. What was going on?
Dr. Brown delivered the diagnosis two weeks later: "Your son has juvenile diabetes."
In the weeks following this diagnosis, I felt too overwhelmed to have my quiet time with God. While I'd always made a daily effort to meet with him, suddenly my reality didn't cooperate with 30-minute or 15-minute devotional time slots. I have to be more disciplined, I told myself. When I tried—and failed—I felt guilty.
I wasn't alone in this struggle. After the birth of her son Seth and then Caden, my coworker Sara was too tired to have daily devotions. The words "Your daughter has terminal cancer" shattered my friend Carol's routine dates with God. And chaos moved in when my sister-in-law Erin's landlord said, "You have ten days to move out."
We've heard it a million times: Daily devotions are the key to a growing relationship with God. So what do we do when crises and the ordinary craziness of life make quiet times impossible? The answer, I've discovered, involves five important questions.
Amazing GraceToo often we harbor a picture of God tapping his foot and muttering, "I'm wait-ing. Why aren't you spending more time with me?" However, the real God hears the screaming deadlines, smells the dirty laundry, sees our paycheck amount, and enters our reality. As we care for an elderly parent or struggle in a marriage, God says, "Here I am. I thought you could use some grace today."
Shortly after Davis's diagnosis, I wandered the grocery store, overwhelmed by the thought of measuring and timing meals and insulin. Somewhere near the Ragu, it hit me: All the medical expertise and latest technology combined can't replace God's design for one small pancreas. We're wonderfully made. God loves my family. Why else would he craft our bodies with such care?
That revelation of God's love came between the pasta and the Prego, not through a formal quiet time. When I couldn't go to God, he brought his love to me in the grocery store aisle.
More than 2,000 years ago, God stepped into human reality to become a burping baby, a sweaty boy, a working man. Today he still invades our reality—with grace.
Ask yourself: How does God's grace meet me here?
The Role of DisciplineGrace doesn't wipe out responsibility or encourage indifference, however. Prayer and Bible reading often require discipline. Last winter, I woke up around 2 A.M., knowing God had something to say to me. I didn't feel like rolling out of bed that cold Minnesota morning, yet as I sat wrapped in a blanket in the living room, God and I had a fabulous conversation.
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