Harmony of Grace

Earlier this month, I attended a minister's retreat in Modderpoort near Ladybrand. We stayed at a beautiful old Anglican Monastery. Most of the days were filled with meetings, but one afternoon we were given a few hours of free time to do as we pleased. I decided to go and explore the surrounding mountains after receiving a tip from another minister about some ancient cave paintings that could apparently be found nearby. Unfortunately, after the recent rains that the area had been experiencing, the path up the mountain was overgrown and not easy to navigate. I spent way longer than necessary traversing up the side of the mountain, often veering off the path and needing to track back to a previous point. I walked for close to an hour with no sign of getting closer to my desired destination. I was about to turn around and make the treacherous trek back down the mountain when I walked through a clearing and was faced with intriguing caves and the most stunning rock paintings ...

Those of you who know me personally, know that I am a gigantic Harry Potter fan. On our recent trip to the UK, we were in the midst of Harry Potter country. Not only were we in the area where the movies were filmed, we also got to visit the places where J.K. Rowling got her inspiration to write these wonderful tales. We made sure to use every opportunity to immerse ourselves in the Harry Potter fandom in the UK. We visited Kings Cross station, the Warner Brothers Studios, Tom Riddle's grave, the coffee shop where JK Rowling used to write her books (The Elephant Room), many of the castles that Hogwarts was modeled after and we even got to ride on the Hogwarts Express steam train! Needless to say, I was in my element. At the Warner Bros Studio Tour we saw how the film makers used amazing special effects to make brooms fly, dragons come to life and magic real. In one of the rooms (Shown in the picture above) they have a massive replica of Hogwarts castle that they use...

Image Source:  9lives In July, I was lucky enough to run the Knysna Forest Half-Marathon with some of my close friends and family. The race consists of a grueling route through the beautiful Knysna forests and mountains. I had trained fairly intensely and was aiming to do my PB for a 21km run. We stood around in the cold for about 2 hours before the race. This gave us time to psych ourselves up and get our minds around the mammoth task ahead of us. Needless to say, by the time the gun sounded we were quite antsy and ready to go! After about 6 or 7 km's into the race, I suddenly realized that I had been so focused on sticking to my desired pace that I had completely ignored all of the beautiful scenery around me. I looked around and enjoyed the views, but within the next km or so, I again found myself focusing more on the figures on my watch than enjoying the experience of being involved in such a prestigious race. For the remainder of the race, I had to continuously ...

In my previous post, I mentioned that in order for us to live a fulfilling life, we need to align ourselves with God's purpose for the world. This brings us to the question: " What is God's purpose for the world?" I believe that God's purpose is revealed in the words and works of Jesus Christ. Many of us have grown up to believe that Jesus was born and lived on Earth so that our sins could be forgiven and we could go to heaven when our worldly bodies die. However, while forgiveness and hope for life after death is important, the Gospels focus less on these 2 purposes than we might imagine. Jesus did not come to earth on an evacuation mission to get us into heaven, but to bring God's kingdom to earth.  - Brian Mclaren Mclaren notes that our "evacuation theology" would require a very different prayer from the one that Jesus gave us. He claims that if forgiveness and going to heaven were Jesus' main purposes for us then the Lord'...

Image Source:  张 学欢 Why did I decide to start this blog? Why call it Harmony of Grace?  One definition for the word harmony is "living in peace and mutual understanding with others." I have always been fascinated with music and in my opinion, the musical definition of the word harmony has a more accurate depiction of the word's true meaning. In musical terms, a harmony is "a note or group of notes that compliment the notes in the melody (main tune of the song)." There are many different possible harmonies, but if played/sung correctly, they all compliment the melody and emphasize the beauty of the musical arrangement as a whole. When I had my first encounter with Jesus, the concept of harmony became much more real in my life. But how does harmony have anything to do with God's grace? I believe that God's grace can be seen in the world we live in, through various means, as a complimentary harmony to God's nature an...