Been wrestling with the idea of grace alot lately. We spent a month this summer talking about GRACE at the Launch. At first, I was a bit bothered with having to come up with 5 different sermons about grace. But on the back side of that series, I feel like we barely scratched the surface.
My latest thought on grace: We simply cannot experience grace in the parts of our lives that we hide from others.
The more I think about the culture of church, the more I see how we all too often create an atmosphere where TRANSPARENCY is not really allowed. Joy is allowed (at least at the Launch). Emotion shows up on occasion. Thoughtfulness is encouraged. But if we're honest, TRANSPARENCY is discouraged.
Transparency means we let people see us as we really are. It means we're honest with ourselves, and with God, and with those around us.
The scriptures talk about being in the light; walking in the light. In the light, you can see. In the darkness, you can't see.
Have you ever seen someone try to hug a kid who doesn't really want to be hugged? That's what I think it's like to try to live in the embrace of Jesus when there are these parts of our life that we are trying to hide.
Grace is such a better way to live. It is the heart of God. It is embrace, full and unrestrained embrace, regardless of what we've done. And you can't really enjoy that embrace while your arms are crossed on your chest because you don't really want to be honest about what's going on deep down.
How do we carve out safe places in our family of faith where we can lay it all on the table and even still be reminded of the great big hug of God, garbage and all?
No comments:
Post a Comment