Places of Faith

The Grace of God. Write it large. Set the words in fancy, bold font.

And then look for it in the everyday corners of your life.

When I think of the places God has made his grace so obvious that even I could see it, I think of the old building that housed a local community theater group, and a university dorm room that I never personally saw.

Today the story of the theater
Many years ago, when I was very young, and my boss was as old as I am today, we had a conversation that led me to a community theater 350 miles away and through the grace of God changed my life forever.

“I’ve been watching you,” he said. “Someday you’ll run a whole operation just like the one I run today.”

My head swelled to three times its normal size.

“The way to make that happen is to run an operation like this one in a smaller city”.

He knew just the job, in a city 6 hours away. I interviewed, and got the job. As I moved, one thing was on my mind: if the new city had a community theater, I had to join.

A week after moving, I was in my boss’ office when his assistant ran into the room. “They asked me to direct a play!” She was very excited. The artistic director of the local “big time” community theater had seen her work in a small town nearby and asked her to be the first guest director ever at his theater.

“Do you know anyone interested in auditioning?” she asked.

Yes. I did. I was cast in the role of a crazed killer.

Rehearsals led to dress rehearsals, and the volunteer make up artists arrived. The only words I could think of to describe the woman who put on my makeup were “Stunning” and “Beautiful”. She was so beautiful that I was sure she would never talk to me.

The play ended its regular run. I still hadn’t gotten up the nerve to talk to her. As the last curtain came down on the last performance, the theater’s artistic director came to the stage and signaled the audience for silence. The play had been such a success, he said, that its run was being extended.

It wasn’t until that extended run that I finally got enough nerve to talk with the beautiful make up artist. Surprisingly she didn’t seem to mind at all. Later I learned that an attraction that I thought was one sided, was mutual from the beginning. Much later, I learned that she had checked out my car to make sure there were no baby seats or other signs of a family. I also learned that she had never volunteered at the theater before. She started volunteering to “forget men” after a bad dating experience.

I say I learned these things later, because within a year of meeting each other, we were married. We just celebrated our 36th anniversary.

For my wife and me to meet….

I had to move just in time to be cast in the play
My boss’ assistant had to be asked to direct her first play at the theater
My wife had to decide to volunteer at the theater for the first time
The play had to be extended while I got up enough courage to talk with her

Do I believe that God brought us together through his grace? I do.

If I were to follow the Old Testament practice of building altars on the spots where God has done great things in my life, I would go to that theatre and make an altar from a pile of stones. When people asked why it was there, I would say, “Because this is a place where God showed his Grace in my everyday life and changed it forever.

Even without a physical altar, that theater will always be one of the “Places of Grace” in my life. When times are difficult, it helps me to remember those places and thank God for his faithfulness.

Where has God shown his grace to you? Where are your “Places of Grace”? Places that increase your faith? Places that will forever mark the faithfulness of God in your life? Share in a comment below….

(Tomorrow – The stories of another place of grace in my life: a dorm room.)

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