As we pass through the Easter season and spring begins across the Ozarks, the trees begin to green up, and the lake seems a little bluer than it did a week ago. 

Everything seems fresh and new. If we are honest, this feels more like the start of the year than January does. Let’s do some spring cleaning and bring things to the local church for the garage sale. We clean up and streamline and try to get back to the basics, and we ask ourselves why do I have this stuff, and, “What is really essential in my life?” 

We’re starting a new series today called Back to Basics. What do I really need? That’s a great question, isn’t it? If you really think about it, a whole lot of us are living on the hamster wheel of this world.

Running fast through all these things, the world told us were important. And the faster we ran, the more exhausted we became and the less progress we made. And we just kept running, striving, struggling, achieving, performing, earning, grinding, doing all these things to become someone, all these things the world told us were essential, we’re going faster and faster and faster, getting exhausted and overwhelmed and tired. 

But, Easter comes, and maybe you spend more time with your family, you focus on relationships, and you come to church, and you sit down, enjoy a meal together, and you think, “Wow, that was really nice; we should do that …more often.”

And the next day, you jump back into that hamster wheel and start running again. And you are left asking yourself, “What is it I really need?”

We are running so fast, trying to gain the world, trying to do all the things the world told us were important. And in the process, we were losing ourselves. Maybe that Easter pause is really a gift from God, giving us a moment to pause because we don’t dare to stop it ourselves. So God is saying, “There is a better way?”

God has already given you everything you need. He has given you everything that’s essential. You don’t have to go find it, you don’t have to go get it, you don’t have to earn it. He has already given it to you. And it all starts with God’s grace.

Grace is the essential of your life. It’s grace that made the sun rise today. It’s grace that there is air to breathe right now. It’s grace that your heart is beating and that you’re alive. Grace created you. Grace sustains you. Grace redeemed you. It’s grace that sent Jesus to the cross. It’s grace that opened your eyes to see your need for a savior. It’s grace that gave you a future and a destiny. It’s grace that you’re here right now. 

And, what you have to remember is that grace is not a concept; he’s a person, and his name is Jesus. Grace is God speaking over your life, saying, I want you, I love you, I chose you, I accept you, I have empowered you, I will take care of you, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

Grace is being included in Christ, included in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, receiving his blessing, his inheritance, and his life. Grace brings you home. And grace is all you need.

So before you run off into your week, just take a moment to take in His Grace. 

Greg Armstrong is the lead pastor at Lakeside Christian Church in Shell Knob. He may be reached at [email protected].