‘Thoughts on Grace’
Lord, Your prompting today reminds me that I still struggle with many things in my religious life even though my spiritual life is stronger than ever. I believe Jesus was God’s son, but I also believe each of us is a child of God. Was Jesus fundamentally different or did he just have the ability to focus his entire being on God or did the stories just grow with the passing years? In some ways, it doesn’t matter at all, and in some ways, this is a world changing answer. I’ll admit that I often wonder about this and wonder if I’ll ever know the answer while I’m here on earth. I do know this, Jesus did change this world and his life is the example I want to follow. Jesus opened the door to God for all of us, removing the intermediaries and allowing direct access for all. If we truly live out Jesus’ two commandments: to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves, it is virtually impossible not to live out the ten commandments. Unfortunately, for us as humans, it’s also virtually impossible to live that out in our lives. But it’s all right, God has a plan for that too. The plan is called grace and grace is available to us due to God’s great love for us. As the hymn says, this truly is ‘Amazing Grace’. It is precisely God’s grace, that allows us to come before God, broken, weary and shattered, but to still be accepted as God’s children. Accepted, in spite of our flaws, in spite of our wandering tendencies, in spite of all those things that make us human, God’s grace, given in love wipes away all those deficiencies.
As with anything God created, I believe humans are good. I suspect God has managed to figure out a way to live with things, accept, and indeed embrace things that fall short of perfection. Given the fact that we as humans still exist, after all these years of falling short, I believe this must be true. Now, if only we humans could find a way to do the same, and to show each other, a little grace.
May you feel and recognize God’s hand moving in your life, today and always!
John
Copyright 2012. John Lage, Jr. All rights reserved.
This was originally started in early March and modified in June 2012.
