Grace is hard! Like crazy hard sometimes! We live in a world with 6 billion + imperfect people in it which means on a fairly regular someone is going to make a mistake, act ugly, say something inappropriate, do something mean, hurt your feelings, and on and on the list could go. The question is not if these things happen to you, the question is when these things happen to you how are you going to react? Enter grace. Its not always easy, in fact its usually pretty hard. I think its the right answer though. I think its the Jesus answer.
Showing grace is a constant battle for me. My natural instinct is definitely not grace. Its get mad, yell, pout, blame, gossip, hold grudges...all things not grace. Regardless of my natural response I want to show grace. I want to get to a place where my natural instinct is grace. I know its right and I know its what I am called to. Cue tattoo. Its sort of my ribbon around my finger. A constant reminder to do whats right. Obviously, a tattoo is not a magic fix all. Like get a tattoo that says grace and never struggle with showing grace again.
A little back story here. We work in a position where we hear a lot of stuff about people, their personal lives, their views on the church, their views about us and a lot of the time its not very nice stuff. That means we get a lot of opportunities to show grace. Recently, our church went through a pretty big transition in which the leadership decided to allow women to have a more visible role in the Sunday morning worship. That change caused some serious conflict in our church. Women's role is a hot button issue in this movement so it really upset some people. Grace was not shown, ugly things were said and people were hurt. It was hard. Tears were shed. Right after it was announced, in the midst of the fallout I had my one and only "God Moment." You know those moments you hear about other people having but never have yourself and question if they really exist. Ya, I had one of those. It was amazing, and comforting, and relieving, and in my mind can only be described as a "God Moment." We were singing a song (I don't have any idea what it was) in Sunday morning worship and I heard it. I heard Him. God. His Spirit. It was so loud and so clear it gave me chills and brought me to tears. All he said was "It's going to be ok." I didn't know how or what that looked like but that was all I needed to know at that very moment. He showed me grace by speaking that to me in that really hard time in our lives. The days after that experience as more people left and more hurtful things occurred the word "grace" just kept being placed on my heart. Show these people grace. This change is hard for them. It's not what they're used to. It's not what they believe. Show them grace. So that's what I have tried to do. Its been hard. and I haven't done it perfectly or even great or even good. But I have been trying to constantly keep that in the front of my mind and make grace my first response to those situations.
People get tattoos for a number of reasons. Some good and some bad. Mine has a reason and an experience tied to it. One of the greatest experiences of my life. The one where I heard the voice of God and felt first hand his amazing power and grace. I want to remember that experience forever and hopefully live out the word He has given me.
I have already had many opportunities to show grace in my life, some big and some small. I know I will have even more opportunities as life continues. What a precious gift grace is. God is the ultimate grace giver and Jesus is the perfect example of showing grace to others. My prayer is that in all situations I will be able to show grace to those around me, my husband, my kids, my family, my friends, and strangers. I know I need it from others.
Thank you Father for pouring out your grace on us so that we may pour it out on others in the exact same way.
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