Kelly's Day 16: Grace

I woke up in the middle of the night last night. I've had grace on my mind lately. I'd like to think of myself as someone who dishes out grace unending, but I fall short...very short. It's hard to serve grace when you are hurt or bitter. It's hard to love when you feel like you've been wronged, or when there's a disruption in a relationship. I am one who "keeps short accounts," meaning that when I feel like I've done wrong (and, I mess up OFTEN), I quickly try to repair broken relationships. I will be held accountable for MY behavior. I will NOT be held accountable for whether or not the person on the receiving end of my apologies will actually forgive. However, sometimes, the hurt runs deep. I've heard that forgiveness is a one way street. That we can forgive without ever receiving an apology. I believe this to be true, but I'm struggling with that lately.

God created us to be in relationship. He created man on day six (Genesis 1:27). It was just God and man hanging out in the Garden of Eden, but God knew that Adam would need someone he could relate to. "The LORD God said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.'" God provided a friend and soulmate for Adam, someone he could be in human relationship with. Yes. God and Adam would have been friends, but it never would have been a mutual friendship. God would always have been God, and Adam always would have been man. Adam, being a mere man, would not have been able to fully relate to God, so God gave Adam someone he could relate to. Grace.

In Young Life circles, there is a very tried and true example of grace. I witnessed this example for the first time at Young Life Camp, where the speaker held out a $20 bill to an audience of over 400 people and said, "This is for you." Silence. Four hundred people sat there staring at the speaker for a solid two minutes. Then, this one guy in the back realized, "Wait a minute. This guy just said this twenty is for ME?! What am I waiting for?" He jumped to his feet, tripped over people to get there as fast as he could, and grabbed that twenty out of the speaker's hand. When other people saw this kid stumbling toward the front, they also tried to jump up to be the first to grab the money, but this kid was fast, and he wanted it the most. He got it. I did this same thing at a Young Life Club in my basement. We had over a hundred kids there that day. I told them that a Snickers bar was for them. I held it out. Big. Long. Silence. Finally, a guy in the very back realized, "WAIT! She said this was for me," and he jumped over people to the front of the room to grab it out of my hand. Did I ask the kid to pay me for it? No. Did I make him work for it? No. I GAVE IT. HE RECEIVED IT. Grace.

Grace is free.
It is a gift.
We can dish it out in droves because we received it!
And, we can dish it out because we LOVE.

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." ~Matthew 7: 13-14.

This verse haunts me. This verse is enough to make you do a "gut check." Do I REALLY believe what is written in the Bible? Am I one of the few that found the narrow gate? In a room of FOUR HUNDRED PEOPLE, only ONE kid "got it," though ALL kids were OFFERED the money. That one kid entered through the narrow gate. He received.

"I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm-neither hot nor cold-I am about to spit you out of my mouth."

~Revelation 3: 15-16.

This verse haunts me, too. Jesus knows our deeds. James reconciles this best his book:

"What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Supposed a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, 'God, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.'" ~James 2: 14-17.

See, cold people do nothing. Their hearts are not FOR Jesus. They extend no grace because they love little or not at all. Lukewarm people take because they have no Jesus to give. They are not filled to the brim with joy. They do not live by grace. They are not lovers. They are takers. HOT people DO STUFF! These are the people who care for orphans and widows. THESE are the people who dig wells in Africa! These are the people that feed and clothe people! They do it in the name of Jesus, and their personal wells do not run dry because the Lord GOD fills them with Living Water DAILY! HE gives them Bread of Life DAILY! And, because HE fills THEM, THEY can spend of themselves. They WANT to serve. They dish out grace upon grace...even when it is undeserved, because that's the very definition of grace!

The reason why the above mentioned verses haunt me is this: If we are cold or lukewarm Christians, we will NOT extend grace. We will NOT go after the lost. We will NOT love like Jesus loves. We will get NOTHING DONE for the kingdom. Those people who are on the broad path that leads to destruction have NO HOPE if all we are is lukewarm. That's why we have to be on fire. That's why our grace must be unending...even when it hurts to extend it. That's why our love must be supernatural...even if our hearts can't bear it. And, that's why our forgiveness must be mirror Jesus's. Our God has extended grace, love and forgiveness unending. Now it's our turn.

"We love because he first loved us." ~1 John 4: 19

"Lord, help me to become one who extends grace upon grace to the undeserving, to the lost, to the lonely, to the heartbroken. Warm my heart, Lord! I do not want to be lukewarm! Help me to be one who would see those on the broad road to destruction and help them back to the narrow gate. Humble me and help me. Amen."

Grace and Peace~

Kelly