Faces of Federated - Entries written by Marty Eble

SunSundayOctOctober30th2011 October 30, 2011 - Marty Eble

Posted Sunday, October 30 2011 @ 12 PM byMarty Eble Tagged No tags 0 comments Add comment

Déjà vu!

Same time, same place, same subject. One year ago tomorrow, I spoke to you of the grace in my life, in my spiritual journey…of how I met a girl that I had seen once in the forty years since we went to school together, of how she moved across the country and of how we were married here at Federated and of the completeness and love that we felt so late in life. I spoke of my spiritual life that led me to grow within my childhood church to become the Minister of Transformation at that very church. And I sang a James Taylor song. As tempting as it is to simply repeat the story today since my subject is the same, I won’t.

When I think of grace, I first think of moving or acting with grace, being graceful. Physical movement can be graceful. I appreciate an athlete who excels at his or her sport with grace. I find that the best athletes can demonstrate grace on and off the playing field. If you are an Indians fan, who will ever forget Omar Visquel ranging behind second base, catching the ball with one hand and flipping the ball in seemingly one motion to the second baseman who catches it in his bare hand, turns, and throws it to first for the double play. Or a certain Miami Heat player…Well, you know what I mean.

But it’s more than simply physical. I recently saw a young pianist from Croatia in concert. She was performing a benefit concert to raise money for a scholarship fund for piano students at the Fine Arts Association in Willoughby. She had taken time out of her world touring schedule after winning the Cleveland International Piano competition. She played with such grace. You could see it and hear it. In fact, you could say that it was inspiring, especially to the young students who performed before her.

My wife Jane and I love music. A few weeks ago, we were watching a concert on PBS that was part of their fundraiser. Joe Bonamassa was performing at the Royal Albert Hall in London. We had never heard of him but we were so moved that we made a donation just to get free tickets to his concert here in Cleveland. On Friday night, for 2 ½ hours this man and his three man backup group performed and amazing array of music and demonstrated a talent, a beauty, dare I say a grace that I’ve never seen…and he did it on a guitar. He spoke to us with his guitar.

All of these people are artists, in the broadest sense, honing their skills and sharing their gifts, their love for their art form, with the world. Sometimes grace is gentle, sometimes it’s not. Sometimes it’s soft, sometimes it’s loud.

I turned 60 last year. Grace isn’t the first word that comes to mind…and neither is inspiring and it certainly wasn’t artistic, but I find myself becoming more attuned to the grace in our daily lives.

Like these artists, I’ve been blessed with a very rewarding career, just not on stage or on television. Rewarding, not just financially, but in ways that give me simple satisfaction and meaning. In my work, I’ve been given the freedom to create real value, and to make a difference in the organization and people’s lives. I work at my trade, and that means a certain amount of refining my skills through hard, sometimes tedious work. Like the artists, we’ll call it practice. But I also get to teach and guide people, to mentor some, to help people see how much more they can do, to find the best fit of skills and personalities. I enjoy being a steward for the values that set my company apart from others, that makes our success sustainable, that makes it a better experience for all who are involved.

So as I see it, it takes hard work and practice to be able to add a little grace into the world.

In the Old Testament, grace means graciousness, kindness, and favor. It is derived from a word that means to bend or stoop in kindness to an inferior, with the purpose of bestowing favor. In the New Testament, this kindness is stressed with having only one motivation—love. It is clearly unearned and unmerited favor, and it causes joy, pleasure, gratification, favor, benefit, thanks, and gratitude.
If your heart and spirit are open to it, you can find grace everywhere. God has worked very hard on us and every time we pray we get to practice. He freely bestows favor upon us and he wants us to pass it to others. As we approach the stewardship season, this is an opportunity for us to acknowledge the grace that we receive directly from him and from him through others by showing our thanks for the joy and inspiration it gives.

Let us pray.

Prayer of the People

Loving Father and Almighty God. We feel your presence. We humbly come to you this morning amazed at the creation that you have entrusted to us, the gifts you have bestowed, the world in which we live, and the grace that you so freely give. Help us to pause and recognize the beauty of your grace in our daily lives…in the people that we know, in the strangers that we encounter, in the talent that you have given, in the beauty that surrounds us, in the small every day miracles. We know that you are present when we are in need and when we celebrate. And we ask that you guide each of us to give the gift of your grace to others, beyond simple generosity but without condition or judgment, as freely as you have given it to us. And surely joy and gratitude will follow. Amen.