Grace, Grace, God's Grace

Have you ever noticed that while we sing about grace, and we are so grateful for grace, and we talk about how fortunate we are that God gives us grace, we are just sick over needing it.  We are sick in ourselves, and we are sick about it in others.  Grace, sure.  Failure, not so much.  Stupid decisions, please get a life!  Use your head, people!  Can you believe what I did?  Can you believe what he/she/they/those guys did?  We say you are forgiven, but we remember.  We say there is grace but somethings are just not really redeemable by grace...are they?  Gosh, lets just say I hope not.  I am depending on God meaning exactly what God says. 

Today I received a very difficult phone call.  A precious person, so dear to my heart, made a very poor decision which could have resulted in injury to others and did result in some damage.   My precious person is still precious to me, maybe even more so, and the overwhelming need to tilt my head sideways and say, "what were you thinking" has very little impact on the love.  I am shamefully aware this has not been my reaction to everyone in the past, far and recent.  Some people do not get the same grace because I don't love them the same way.  How awful, no wonder I feel shame.

I am the man in the parable who has been forgiven a debt so large I could never have repaid it.  In fact, having been forgiven all that debt, I have gone on incurring debt that continues to be forgiven.  But those who have been in debt to me are required to meet certain standards before they can be forgiven.  They have to be people I love anyway.  They have to be trying to change whatever it was that caused the indebtedness to begin with.  They have to do things that make sense to me.  Who on earth do I think I am????

There is a place for accountability.  There is the need for brothers and sisters to come along side those who have caused an offense that requires grace to cover and lovingly help them make different choices in the future.  We might even be one of the places where they can turn when they need someone to stand with them, are in a bad place and need a way out.  There are times when we can lovingly speak truth into people or situations or even issues that are God given opportunities of light and life.  We do not hand alcohol to those who are far too susceptible.  We do not help people keep their blinders fully in place.  We do not aid and abet denial, avoidance, delusion.  But we never withhold grace, and the love of God.  Not if we want to take hold of that which Christ has already taken hold of for us.

Oh that today I might love as I have been loved, forgive as I have been forgiven, pour grace out on those who really need it today.  And God bless my precious person!