The Truth about Grace.

My friend Abhishek suggested I write about grace a few months ago. If I’m honest I didn’t have anywhere to start because I wasn’t really sure how to write about it. If I’m even more honest it’s because I was having a hard time experiencing and feeling grace myself, and therefore for everyone else around me too. So I waited.

Here we are several months later.

It won’t be perfect because how the heck do you perfectly capture grace in words? Other than just saying Jesus. But here we go.

Grace. The standard definition is the free and unmerited favour of God. Or as I better love, the definition given by one of my sweet ninth grade girls, Josey,

“Grace is something we don’t deserve but we are gifted to receive.”

-She’s truly a shining star, and not to mention an author of her very own book.-

It’s true, grace is everything we need and yet everything we do not deserve.

Yet somehow and some way, by the very existence of love itself, we are gifted it for eternity, once we choose to receive it.

But how do we receive it?

I’ve really never been good at receiving help, taking compliments, or really letting anyone do anything for me. I couldn’t have articulated this several months ago, but it scares me. It scares me to receive something that I don’t deserve; or I haven’t earned, because even though I know I don’t truly deserve anything, to me it somehow feels secure to pretend that I can and do.

It feels like I’m in control.

Like I have the power to change my life.

Like I have the might to maintain my life.

Like I can stay safe and unharmed as long as I do it all and be all for everyone else.

But that’s not really how life works, no matter how hard I try to make it seem like it does.

Grace is uncomfortable and breathtaking. At first it can feel like the wind being knocked out of you as you begin to desire to let God take over. Then, eventually, it’s like standing on top of the highest mountain where the breeze flows just right, and the view becomes breathtakingly wonderful. It becomes the place you never want to leave, and you always find your way back to.

Now while grace is something we don’t deserve but are gifted, it also comes with a rod and a staff. Grace comforts, loves, provides mercy. Grace admonishes, rebukes, and redirects.

I mean think, why would a perfect Father ever let His children wander around the edges of a fire pit alone and unsteady?

He wouldn’t and He doesn’t. He pulls us up, which at times feels like the most heartbreaking and punishing rebuke, but it’s so we might have a life that is everything we have ever truly desired.

And it’s not a desire of the flesh, but rather a desire of the spirit that yearns for the home within the grasps of a mighty and powerful creator. Grace doesn’t mean you get whatever you want, Grace is getting everything you need, which as you grow more in love, it becomes everything you’ve ever desired.   

Grace, so much more to say, and so little room to frame it. Praying for you and with you on your journey toward a greater and more purpose filled life.

The word of God.

“For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.”

‭‭Titus‬ ‭2‬:‭11‬-‭15‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Thanks be to God.