{"id":6207,"date":"2017-02-14T11:49:49","date_gmt":"2017-02-14T19:49:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cslewis.org\/blog\/?p=6207"},"modified":"2017-02-14T11:49:49","modified_gmt":"2017-02-14T19:49:49","slug":"word-grace-february-2-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cslewis.org\/blog\/word-grace-february-2-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"A Word of Grace &#8211; February 2, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;\"><b>Dear Friends,<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nOn a sunny Friday afternoon, I talk to a bond counsel about a pension plan issue. Later, I talk to the Executive Director of Corporate Compliance about a privacy issue.<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nIn between I go into the backyard of the house serving as the Office of General Counsel to pick navel oranges and Meyer lemons. There is a bumper crop this winter.<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nThree financial executives and a psychiatrist join me there. One of them I talked into moving a scheduled meeting to be here. \u201cYou need the sunshine and the rest,\u201d I said. It wasn\u2019t a hard sell.<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nAll of us have pressing responsibilities in an organization where the greatness of the mission and the meagerness of the resources to support that mission create a stressful tension. All of us have found prayer to our heavenly Father for the bountiful gifts of his love to be our most important asset in our lives and work.<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nOur prayerful commitment to service binds us together in the love of God and connects us to many others called to the same mission of \u201ccontinuing the healing and teaching ministry of Jesus Christ.\u201d Our work together is a fulfillment of Paul\u2019s explanation of Christian life and service to the Corinthian church, \u201cThe love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all, therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them\u201d (2 Cor 5:14-15).<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nFor an hour we talk and laugh and fill boxes and bags with fruit. We divide up the bounty and take some pictures. My friends go their way and I return to my phone calls and contracts.<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nIt was just an hour on a January workday afternoon, but an hour that would have been denied by schedules and tasks, if we had not intentionally decided to meet.<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nOne of our organization\u2019s stated values is \u201cwholeness,\u201d the balance of the mental, physical and spiritual in one\u2019s life. We speak of it in terms of \u201cwhole person care\u201d meaning attention to that balance in caring for our patients and students, but the intense effort required to deliver and support that care can leave the care-givers physically exhausted, emotionally stressed, and spiritually empty.<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nI am the oldest member by over two decades of the little group of fruit-pickers. Long experience has taught me that an hour or a day will most likely make no difference and few things that are off track can\u2019t be set right again.<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nThe most important thing I\u2019ve learned is that our souls are cisterns, not natural springs. They will crack under stress and leak out the contents of virtue that we attempt to manufacture for ourselves in good behavior and emulation of Christ. Here is what God told Jeremiah about such efforts\u2014<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><i>My people have committed two evils:<\/i><\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><i>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 they have forsaken me,<\/i><\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><i>\u00a0\u00a0 the fountain of living water,<\/i><\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><i>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0and dug out cisterns<\/i><\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><i><br \/>\n<\/i><\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><i>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0for\u00a0themselves,<\/i><\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><i>\u00a0\u00a0 cracked cisterns<\/i><\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><i>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 that can hold no water.<\/i><\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n(Jer 2:13)<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nThere are many pressures to become cistern-builders even in a Christian organization. Performance is measured by benchmarks published on dashboards seeking constant improvement. So called labor-saving devices like email and cell-phones are really time-compression devices enlarging technological capacity for task at the cost of human time for reflection and deliberation.<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nAdded into the mix is a management theory and practice called \u201ccontinual improvement process.\u201d An organization called the Institute of Quality Assurance defines the concept\u2014<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><i>Continuous improvement [is] a gradual never-ending change which is: \u201c&#8230; focused on increasing the effectiveness and\/or efficiency of an organisation to fulfill its policy and objectives. It is not limited to quality initiatives. Improvement in business strategy, business results, customer, employee and supplier relationships can be subject to continual improvement. Put simply, it means \u2018getting better all the time.\u201d<\/i><\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"> (<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><i>Fryer, Karen J.; Antony, Jiju; Douglas, Alex (2007). \u201c<\/i><\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><i><u>Critical success factors of continuous improvement in the public sector: A literature review and some key findings\u201d<\/u><\/i><\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><i> (PDF). Total Quality Management. <\/i><\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><b><i>19<\/i><\/b><\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><i>(5): 497\u2013517)<\/i><\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nIt is hard to argue with words like \u201cimprovement,\u201d \u201ceffectiveness,\u201d \u201cefficiency,\u201d \u201cquality,\u201d\u00a0 \u201cstrategy,\u201d \u201cresults,\u201d \u201crelationships,\u201d and \u201cbetter.\u201d But they are words of demand, not words of life. They all add up to \u201cmore\u201d \u2013 more performance, more effort, more production, more action, more resources, more energy, and more analysis. Paradoxically, they mean \u201cless\u201d \u2013 less time, less family, less reflection, less community, less solitude, less care.<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nThese words bring to mind the plaint of Solomon\u2014\u201cAgain, I saw vanity under the sun: the case of solitary individuals, without sons or brothers; yet there is no end to all their toil, and their eyes are never satisfied with riches. \u2018For whom am I toiling,\u2019 they ask, \u2018and depriving myself of pleasure?\u2019 This is also vanity and an unhappy business\u201d (Ecc 4:7-8).<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nMore than an unhappy business, the process of continuous improvement contributes to a graceless pattern of living that proves irresistible to guilt-ridden men and women raised in a legalistic Christian subculture that perpetually left them thinking they had never done enough.<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nIt takes discernment provided by the Holy Spirit and nurtured with solitude and rest to relegate work to the office, shop, ward, or clinic and to leave it behind for God, family and friends. Yet, too few take the time of prayer and reflection necessary to connect with the Holy Spirit.<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nSomehow the urgent always demands priority over \u201cJesus\u2019 timeless invitation, \u201cCome to me all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light\u201d (Matt 11:28-30). Jesus\u2019 gently told us that we need the experience of Mary before taking on the responsibilities of Martha (Luke 10:38:41).<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nI was thirty-seven, the age of my fruit-picking companions when I crashed and sank on the reef of performance. The temptation of work for good causes and the approval of the best people lured me into expending all of my mental and physical abilities. I had no time for spiritual things meaning my soul had no source of renewal. Husband, father, attorney, employer, colleague, friend \u2013 all God-given roles, proved to be outlets to the cistern I had dug for myself with no inlet for the Spirit to renew me.<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nI proved inadequate to the demands for my performance. At my lowest point, God intervened and I repented, which means changing direction. I headed towards God and accepted my dependence on his grace instead of seeking success on my own. Heading towards God puts me in the backyard of my office picking fruit with my laughing friends on a Friday afternoon instead of plowing through the paperwork on my desk.<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nWork remains an unavoidable challenge, of course. Work is a gift by which God provides for the sustenance of our earthly lives. But when God says, things like \u201cmy grace is sufficient for you,\u201d or \u201cSix days shall you labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work,\u201d or \u201cCome to me . . . and I will give you rest\u201d (2 Cor 12:9, Deut 5:13; Matt 12:28), he is telling us that our dependent relationship with Him defines our lives, not our gifts. To get this wrong is to be a cistern, rather than a conduit for the flow of his life.<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nI like to work too much. The idolatry of work is my equivalent to the Apostle Paul\u2019s thorn in the flesh. I wrestled with this for years, but too much of my identity was in my work to give it up. I represented many Christian organizations which made it all the harder since the work had a good purpose.<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nFinally, I pled with God to heal me of this addiction to work. He led me to submit all of my work to him as an act of faith. \u201cWe live by faith, not by sight,\u201d said Paul (2 Cor 5:7). How do we live by faith? This description by the Christian evangelist\/author Ian Thomas matches my experience.<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><i>How do you walk by faith? By exposing every new situation to the Lord Jesus who, as God, lives in you through the Holy Spirit. Nothing sensational, nothing spectacular, just expose every situation to Christ: every threat, promise, opportunity, responsibility, problem, no matter what. Stand back and say, \u201cThank You for all of this, Lord Jesus. Thank You for what You will do so that I can live miraculously. You have been waiting for me to be available so You can live Your life through me, which would otherwise be utterly impossible for me.\u201d Giving thanks in this way is the evidence of true faith.<\/i><\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><i>The Lord Jesus Christ claims the use of <\/i><\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><b><i>your <\/i><\/b><\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><i>body, <\/i><\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><b><i>your<\/i><\/b><\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><i> whole being, <\/i><\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><b><i>your<\/i><\/b><\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><i>complete personality, so that as you give yourself to Him through the eternal Spirit, He may give Himself to you through the eternal Spirit, that all your activity as a human being on earth may be His activity in and through <\/i><\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><b><i>you<\/i><\/b><\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><i>; so that every step you take, every word you speak, everything you do, everything you are, may be an expression of the Son of God living in you. It means letting Him think through your thinking, letting Him react through your reactions, letting Him decide through your decisions<\/i><\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"> (<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><i>The Indwelling Life of Christ <\/i><\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\">[Colorado Springs, CO: Multnomah Books, 2006], p 101).<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nIt took time, but there was no alternative to the Lord taking over my entire life including my work. He either has all of me, or he has none of me. I kept making mistakes, years of mistakes and sins, by presuming, attempting to control, and taking short cuts on the Lord\u2019s instruction.<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nThen in a three day span of time in December someone spoke to me of my ministering to them over a long span of time that included stressful moments and disagreements. Someone else spoke of my legal advocacy and support as making a difference of grace in the cause of the poor and afflicted.<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nA woman at a luncheon said she appreciated my visits to her office because \u201cyou always walk in with a prayer on your lips.\u201d<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n\u201cReally,\u201d I said, \u201cI am a bad-tempered, surly lawyer. I don\u2019t remember praying with you.\u201d<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nHer colleague spoke up. \u201cWe are all bad-tempered and surly at times. That\u2019s not the point. The point is what the Lord does in you, with you and through you. That\u2019s what makes a difference in the room.\u201d<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nI wept on the way home. Christ is worthy, I am not. He is worthy and it\u2019s enough.<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nAlong the way, I have learned I can\u2019t change anything and have stopped trying. Instead, I\u2019ve been called to be a subversive for Jesus. By prayer and acts of grace, I, a recovering workaholic and driven Type \u201cA\u201d personality, try to reverse the conditions of obligation, desperation and despair that oppress so many in quiet ways.<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nSo I invite my young professional friends in to my office back yard and away from their phones, computers and schedules as an act of subversion. Nothing is lost to them, but something is gained.<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nThey pick fruit that grows by God\u2019s grace, but can\u2019t be manufactured by human hands. The fruit, full of flavor and nutrition, is grown on trees planted long before they were born. People of faith plant trees so that future generations can enjoy the fruit.<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nThe Tulip House is the name of my office because it is located on Tulip Street, but it is a nice name for a law office. It is a pleasant place, a retreat center for the tired and the stressed to come for some quiet, an encouraging word, and prayer. One executive refers to it as the \u201cHouse of Refuge.\u201d<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nHaving a law office that is a place people want to come for nurture rather than conflict fulfills my calling to be a subversive for Jesus. Taking the instruments of conflict and business \u2013 my laptop, cell phone, office, a meeting with a colleague or client or an adversary \u2013 and letting God breathe grace through the device and into the circumstance is my subversion against the powers of this world who only know how to take, to punish or to win.<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nIf I remember to let Christ take the lead, things go well. If I act in my own strength on my own will, things go \u201ciffy\u201d or badly. Christ teaches me by experience to let him take the lead in all things.<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nMy prayer is that my young colleagues will find being a subversive for Jesus is appealing and they will join the revolution too.<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n\u201cO taste and see that the Lord is good. Happy are those who take refuge in him\u201d (Psalm 34:8)<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nUnder the mercy of Christ,<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2013<\/p>\n<p><em>Please note that the content and viewpoints of Mr. Hansen are his own and are not necessarily those of the C.S. Lewis Foundation. We have not edited his writing in any substantial way and have permission from him to post his content.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2013<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cslewis.org\/blog\/images\/kent-hansen.jpg\" alt=\"Kent Hansen\" width=\"180\" height=\"220\" align=\"left\" hspace=\"15\" vspace=\"5\" \/>Kent Hansen is a Christian attorney, author and speaker. He practices corporate law and is the managing attorney of the firm of Clayson, Mann, Yaeger &amp; Hansen in Corona, California. Kent also serves as the general counsel of Loma Linda University and Medical Center in Loma Linda, California.<\/p>\n<p>Finding God\u2019s grace revealed in the ordinary experiences of life, spiritual renewal in Christ and prayer are Kent\u2019s passions. He has written two books,\u00a0<em>Grace at 30,000 Feet and Other Unexpected Places<\/em> published by Review &amp; Herald in 2002 and\u00a0<em>Cleansing Fire, Healing Streams: Experiencing God\u2019s Love Through Prayer<\/em>, published by Pacific Press in spring 2007. Many of his stories and essays about God\u2019s encompassing love have been published in magazines and journals. Kent is often found on the hiking trails of the southern California mountains, following major league baseball, playing the piano or writing his weekly email devotional, \u201cA Word of Grace for Your Monday\u201d that is read by men and women from Alaska to Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Friends, On a sunny Friday afternoon, I talk to a bond counsel about a pension plan issue. Later, I talk to the Executive Director of Corporate Compliance about a privacy issue. In between I go into the backyard of the house serving as the Office of General Counsel to pick navel oranges and Meyer [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":5598,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[226,225],"tags":[649,227],"class_list":["post-6207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-word-of-grace","category-devotional","tag-a-word-of-grace","tag-kent-hansen"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Word of Grace - February 2, 2017 - Living the Legacy of C.S. Lewis<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cslewis.org\/blog\/word-grace-february-2-2017\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Word of Grace - February 2, 2017 - Living the Legacy of C.S. Lewis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dear Friends, On a sunny Friday afternoon, I talk to a bond counsel about a pension plan issue. Later, I talk to the Executive Director of Corporate Compliance about a privacy issue. In between I go into the backyard of the house serving as the Office of General Counsel to pick navel oranges and Meyer [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.cslewis.org\/blog\/word-grace-february-2-2017\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Living the Legacy of C.S. 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