Grace

Pastor Darren has been talking a lot about grace, lately. I love the study of grace because I have have been the recipient of an inordinate amount of it in my lifetime. Grace is wonderful when it is distributed in my direction, but sometimes it seems reckless or irresponsible when it is administered in the lives of others. Sometimes I wonder, "Don't we have standards anymore?" or "Are we just letting that person off the hook before we (meaning "I") have seen any repentance from that person?" Grace is a scary word when it calls on me to relenquish my right to hold onto an offense. It can seem patently unfair when someone who has done wrong is now welcomed into fellowship. But that is what grace is like. Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves. He looks beyond the things we so often fixate on to see the heart.

I know my heart. I know my thoughts. I know my secret attitudes. I know my outward appearance and my public reputation. I know how I often I fail. I know that I am eternally grateful for God's grace. Without it, I don't have a chance.