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The Grace Factor



 At our church in Minot or my sister's church in Wilton (ND), we have performed a Christmas musical for the past decade or more. The results of doing this have been personally gratifying for the teams of people we've assembled and many worthy charities have benefitted from the offerings as well. But none of this would have happened were it not but our group is a bit of a loose cannon, albeit a talented one. Our musicians are handed words, chords, and have someone sing a tune in their ears a few times. From that we expect background music and harmony--and we get it, well done. Our actors are given scripts two weeks to a month ahead of time, and due to the busy-ness of all involved (and who ain't busy?) practice together only three or four times. This year, the whole cast practiced once, two hours before curtain, but still managed a coordinated performance of a one hour play.

Believe me, this is no Christmas brag letter. This can happen for only one reason, the Grace factor. As near as I can figure, when a group of people gets together for the express purpose of blessing others by the use of their God-given gifts, He does things that shouldn't be possible with that effort. If we've seen it once, we've seen it a dozen times, God gives unnatural blessings to these honest efforts, and they always turn out better than expected.

Don't get me wrong. We work at what we do. We go through the stress and strain of putting a good program together. It's not all fun, and great things don't happen because we just show up. But I'm telling you, with the limited time we have to be all together in one place to rehearse, our shows should never be as good as they are. We expect to do our part, but it is amazing how God does His. It amazes us every time.

The point of sharing this is: Try it. Try doing a risky team venture you think might be too hard and too much hassle, be it drama or visitation or service of any kind. Just see if God won't show up in a big way. My bet is He will. I think He loves being part of a team. He loves to deliver the Grace factor.



About the Author:

 

Steve Graner is a Christian educator and familyman employed by the Minot, ND Public School District. A licensed laypastor, he is passionate about Christian writing and Christian drama. Along with family and friends, Steve has performed numerous self-written dramas and musicals for area church audiences.