My New Year's "Aspiration"
The nowness of grace and what it means to know the rope is always there
A Humble Desire
Rather than New Year’s resolutions, I am making New Year’s aspirations this go around. It may be a semantic issue, as the words overlap in meaning, but aspiration sounds less flesh-oriented and more God-dependent than making a resolution. With a resolution, I make promises to change. With an aspiration, I express a humble desire for change, acknowledging, without supernatural empowerment, I’m destined to fail.
I do not mean to suggest there is less commitment with an aspiration nor that a mere aspiration provides an excuse to blame God for my failure. Rather, a recognition of weakness causes me to press into the Vine of Jesus with determined faith, believing he “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Eph 3:20).
It should be noted and emphasized that the power at work within us is the Holy Spirit.
Consequently, if the fulfillment of such an aspiration results from God’s enabling grace through the presence and power of the Spirit, I will be reminded to look to Christ and not to myself for the motivation and strength to see my New Year’s desires be realized.
The Nowness of Grace
My primary aspiration for 2022 is the exhortation of Francis Schaeffer, who writes in True Spirituality that the authentic Christian life centers on a moment-by-moment awareness of who I am in Christ as a fully forgiven, perfectly accepted, eternally loved, adopted child of the Father. To that end, he encourages believers to embrace the present value of Jesus’ blood. It is the presentness I want to contemplate in 2022—not just past or future grace (as wonderful as that is!) but the nowness of grace, knowing I am covered, cleansed, and reconciled—in the moment.
Or as Schaeffer says, “moment-by-moment.”
But most of us have jobs that require mental focus. We can’t only mediate on the blood of Jesus when our minds are fully engaged in vocational tasks or vocational pursuits such as reading a good book, enjoying date night with a spouse, playing with the kids in the front yard, or riding Space Mountain at Disney World.
So, what does Schaeffer mean when he exhorts us to live in conscious union with Jesus moment-by-moment?
The Rope That’s Always There
The nowness of grace may be related to Paul’s admonition to “pray without ceasing.” Does Paul mean we are to do nothing but pray? Or does he mean we should live in such a closeness to the Father we live in the atmosphere of prayer — a ready state to ask, confess, lament, and express our trust consciously in prayer? Maybe pray without ceasing is like “don’t hang up,” or “stay on the line.” You aren’t expected to be talking to God all day and night, but you are consciously connected.
It’s like rock climbing.
Most rock climbers and those who rappel use ropes. By attaching a rope to a secure object above the rock face, they have the freedom to ascend and descend the wall. I suppose there are times when a climber is more conscious of the rope than at other times, especially in the more precarious moments. But the rope is always there, present and available.
Praying without ceasing is like that. You are not always speaking formal prayers. However, you also are not waiting for Sunday, either. And you don’t just pray for a few minutes during a “quiet time” in the morning or before bed. Those are fine times to pray. But the “without ceasing” kind of prayer is when you pray in the moment, whenever and wherever the need arises. It is not hanging up but staying on the line.
Maybe this is what Schaeffer means by living by faith, moment-by-moment.
It’s knowing Jesus’ blood is the rope that’s always there, present and available—the nowness of grace.