You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ category.
When you think about it, Grace really isn’t fair. Here we are, a bunch of stubborn, rebellious humans intent on our own way and demanding that the Creator God of the universe meet our every need.
We are His finest creation, the masterpiece of all that is. We were originally created in His image so that we could be in relationship with him. There are two things that strong loving relationships are defined by. First of all, strong, loving relationships offer both parties complete and total freedom. I Corinthians 13 is often referred to as the love chapter. Here, love is described as trusting, patient, enduring, selfless. THAT is freedom. Freedom to be everything we were created to be.
A second defining characteristic of a strong loving relationship is that both parties benefit from the situation. If there is not mutual benefit with the parties involved, then, in reality, relationship does not exist. Rather, such a situation is better referred to as an arrangement. One party is the beneficiary of warm fuzzies, the other is simply a provider of warm fuzziness.
A common acrostic to define Grace is God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. Theologically, this is very true. Grace is God’s unlimited gift to all who will accept it. He holds nothing back regardless of what anyone has done.
While this definition is certainly true, I’m not sure it tells the whole story from God’s point of view. Every day I’m thankful for the fact that God has extended his grace towards me. Like Paul I find myself failing to obey on a daily basis. The Apostle’s frustration as expressed in Romans 7 is a testimony to my own existence. I find myself at war with my old self. I don’t do what I know I should and do what I know I shouldn’t. I fight a losing battle.
While I am more than willing to accept God’s grace towards me, it’s not always easy for me to extend that grace towards others. In fact, to be honest, there are some people that I just flat out don’t want to extend grace to, and to be brutally honest, I don’t want God to extend grace to either. Before you crucify me for that, take a close look at yourself. Remember that guy that cut you off last week? How about the incompetent server at the last restaurant you were at? How many times MUST you forgive the son/daughter that refuses to clean their room, do their homework, mow the lawn, etc. etc.
It was during one of these ‘grace-less’ moments that I came up with my own definition of Grace. For me, Grace is defined as, “It is an emotional decision made by a rational being to grant undeserved and unlimited rewards to someone who has no ability to repay.”
Grace, is an emotional decision. God loves me. That is emotion. His decision was well thought out. He knows I’ll fail He knows I’ll rebel and go my own way. Having thought all this out, He made the decision, not only to love me, but to give me all the blessings in his arsenal, knowing full-well that I could not return the favor.
While this definition may not be inspired, it’s helped me to gain a new appreciation for the love my Heavenly Father has for me.
Since the beginning of time mankind has not done well with freedom. When Jehovah God created man and woman, he placed them in a beautiful garden. They were naked and without shame. This nudity was not only physical, but emotional, social and intellectual. Yes, that means that at one point, man and woman actually understood each other completely. But with all the freedom they had in relationship as well as life in general, it was short lived. The downfall of the couple’s freedom was due to a single fruit tree placed in the middle of the garden and off limits as far as a food source goes. The ‘temptation’ to leave the tree alone was more than the couple could bear. Mankind failed to live in that freedom, sacrificing that freedom for the restrictions of sin.
Years later, the mistakes of mankind continued to grow more and more intense. Still, there was no formal set of rules, but mankind was allowed to live according to ‘whatever was right in their own eyes’. The increasing depravity of social conscience drove the creator God to destroy all but a small representation of the life he originally created.
And so the story goes. Israel was given freedom from the Egyptian Pharaoh only to long for the limitations of a false god shortly after their deliverance. The solution, was a relationship with creator God that was based on a strict set of laws and rules designed to govern virtually every aspect of social and religious life. Yet, the law was impossible to fulfill and only served to appease creator God. Real, and true relationship, was limited at best. Not because of God’s unwillingness to commune with man, but because of man’s inability to meet the requirements of a Holy God.
The only hope mankind had to regain the once-personal, intimate relationship with creator God was for His only Son to deliver them by paying, in full the price for the mistakes that dated back to the beginning of creation itself.
The coming of the Christ-child, His sacrificial death and death-defeating resurrection enabled and empowered mankind to rekindle the relationship lost in the Garden of Eden. God’s rules were in this new social order was simple. The long list of detailed laws and regulations was replaced by a simple request to love Him, and to love others. THAT is freedom.
Still, mankind has not learned. Our founding fathers came to this land over 200 years ago to escape the tyranny of the church and so seek a new land built on…you guessed it, freedom. Freedom to live, worship and co-exist due to our mutual humanity and not based on race, gender or creed.
Once again, the freedom was short-lived. True freedom speaks of no limits. True freedom assumes that those of us living in freedom will do so responsibly, taking into consideration how our actions affect those around us.
Way back in Biblical times, the Apostle Paul saw the same issues we see today. A group of people freed from the tyranny of rules, intent on putting limitations on our freedom. It’s the age-old conflict between license and liberty. The victims of the battle are often the very ones freedom was intended to influence. All to often the church
Grace is about freedom to learn relationship with God first and mankind second. Grace does not guarantee perfection, nor does it demand anything from us other than to accept the gift and repent of our wayward lifestyle. As we grow in relationship to God, He reveals to us a way of life that is fulfilling, meaningful and full of love.
It’s a bit of a cliche’ I know, but life is a journey. The advantage to most journey’s we take is that we have a destination and a map to guide us. Life isn’t like that. You get up in the morning with a plan and when you come to bed later that night you look back and realize you have no idea how you got where you did.
I think often of the ‘great men of faith’ like Abraham, Moses and David. Great men that accomplished mighty things. Yet a close look at thier lives show a series of potholes, wrong turns and detours before they finally reached thier destination. One of my favorite authors, Philip Yancey, taught me (through his books) to read between the lines of the Bible to catch the true story. Feel the emotion of failure, the thrill of victory, the agonizing struggle of confusion that our ‘Biblical Heroes’ felt.
That’s what Grace is about. It’s about the journey. It’s about falling down, picking yourself off, brushing off the cinders and moving on. It’s about arriving at the destination better than you were when you left, but bruised, battered and thankful just to be alive.
The struggle comes when we fall and just lay on the path, or drag ourselves into the bushes to lick our wounds. Fatique, failure and fear set in. Why did I try? I fell again today. I fell three times yesterday and those wounds haven’t healed yet. I’m done. I can’t get up. And if I do get up, I’ll just lose…again.
‘Built with Grace’ is my story. It’s not a flashy story of how I succeeded at everything I ever tried. It’s a story about learning to live daily with the realization that I may fail, but that failure says nothing about who I am. Another favorite author, John Eldredge, helped me see that God didn’t fall in love with me because I was awesome. He fell in love with me because HE is awesome.
And so, I pick myself up. Excited about the possibilities, fearful of failure and expecting resistance. But I’m moving. I probably won’t finish first, or even place. But I’ll finish. That is what life is about. Finishing well and knowing that I’m not junk. I’m BUILT WITH GRACE.
Mike Fisk & Built with Grace 