Grace is hard to define!
Recently, I was a recipient of a difficult phone conversation. The person on the other end had no idea how my heart clinched with each word-grenade tossed my way. In the after-math, as I was gazing out my kitchen window, I recalled a podcast in which the speaker reframed the term “grace.”
“Churchy” lingo defines grace as unmerited favor, or undeserved consideration. The podcast speaker challenged me to dig deeper, to practice grace in everyday situations (like the phone call I previously described).
Grace looks like creating space for other people who don’t think like I do, holding myself accountable to and not destroy the “other,” holding space for another’s physical and mental circumstances that are unknown to me.
This is hard people!
So, why don’t I have or why don’t I practice this kind of transcendent grace?
Most likely, I don’t know how to let go of the safety and security of binary thinking. I’m not adept at building boundaries, showing others how to interact with me instead of building my “right and wrong” walls so high that I cut people out.
Back to the phone call. . . I need a re-do!
I will wait and have an in-person conversation and in the mean-time, practice Jesus’ transcendent type of grace. I’ll toss out the “evangelicaleeze” word-salad definition of grace in the trash and follow Jesus’ example as much as I can.
Who are the “others” who challenge the practice of grace in your life? How can you re-frame your attitude?
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.