Church offers reminder of God’s love and grace | Church Corner

Your family room on Super Bowl Sunday may have looked a lot like mine. The people were different, but the emotions were similar across the Northwest.From the moment the game started to the time it ended, we experienced a roller coaster of every emotion possible. Our family room went from jumping, high-five, ecstatic joy when Kearse caught that amazing bouncing catch – to complete dumbfounded silence when the heartwrenching interception on the one-yard line sealed our fate.

Your family room on Super Bowl Sunday may have looked a lot like mine. The people were different, but the emotions were similar across the Northwest.

From the moment the game started to the time it ended, we experienced a roller coaster of every emotion possible.  Our family room went from jumping, high-five, ecstatic joy when Kearse caught that amazing bouncing catch – to complete dumbfounded silence when the heartwrenching interception on the one-yard line sealed our fate.

Our lives are a lot like that Seahawks game. At any given time, we can go from being on the top of the world to being at the darkest depths of despair. And in this human roller coaster of emotion that we all share in this journey called life, God whispers to us: “My peace I give to you, not as the world gives, but as I give.”

We have a picture in our house that my husband’s grandma made us when we were first married. She stitched the words, “As for Me and My House, We will Serve the Lord” in German. Everything seems much more powerful in German.

These simple words, from the book of Joshua, are hung in our family room to remind us that no matter what happens, we cling to this amazing gift of grace from our God and savior.

In Philippians 4, Paul writes that he has learned to be content in all things. He didn’t state this from the comfort of a beach chair in Cancun; he stated these amazing words from prison walls: “I have learned the secret in being content in any and every situation. I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.”

So as we journey together in life – through the laughter, the tears, the joy, and the heartache – we remind each other as people of God the promise of his love, his mercy, his everlasting kindness, his hope and his grace. That is what our church home does for us, it simply reminds us week after week of God’s love and his grace. We come as broken, beautiful people to remind each other of an amazing God who loves us.

Yes, as a family we are still processing the Seahawks’ loss, but each day gets easier and we are still flying our 12th Man flag high.

Tammy Rismiller authored this article in place of Pastor Walt Rice, who is recovering from surgery.