"God drops grace into our lives to show us a glimpse of where we will be going" (Mark Driscoll '09) Am I a grace seeker? Anyone who has spent a good amount of time with me can answer that question without much of a thought. One of the many, many things I love and admire about Buttercup is that she has a way of speaking truth (yes, there is such a thing) into my life about what I need to work on. Being truthful, there are time (most) that I don't appreciate it at the moment, but can look back and see where her heart is and the reason she is so bold about it. This is a reoccurring subject in the Otis/Buttercup household. My lack of grace can usually can be seen in how I react or act towards Buttercup, my daughters, friends and family.
Grace is also tied to hope. which can be described as confident security. This leads to another thought. Is the reason that I struggle with showing Grace because I don't have hope? In myself, in others, in general? Wait, this also can be tied to Faith (see previous post). Is it just me, or are you seeing a trend here? Grace, hope, faith all are related to the heart. I know that even though I have a public education, I can at least see that trend. OK, so these are related now what? It seems like I continue to come back to this same well, over and over again.
What prevents me from showing Grace to those that I love and care for? Why is it that this is not something that comes to mind first, instead of anger, frustration or impatience? Maybe I don't truly appreciate the Grace that has been shown me from God and others. You would think that a person who makes as many mistakes over and over again and struggles in may areas as I do, would understand the importance of expressing Grace to others.
As I think about how I can change this trend I plan on integrating the following three questions into my daily life as a barometer of have I am doing in this area:
1. How is my hope?
2. Where is my faith?
3. Am I being a grace seeker?
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Yes, we are in agreement - you make lots and lots of mistakes over and over...
Remember when Jesus confronted the Pharisee in his home when the prostitute was washing his feet: "But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little." (Luke 7:47). I, at least, always tend to magnify the actions of others and minimize my own because I "know" my own heart: I'm a pretty good guy, it was just a little mistake. They, on they other hand, obviously intended the worst.
The reality is we are no better than each other; as one pastor said, we're all beggars at the same table. One would think that beggars would be so grateful for the provision made for them that they would not quibble amongst themselves; sadly, we so often feel we need to having a pecking order ("I'm better than x"). That pulling the beam out of your own eye prior to removing the speck from your brother's eye thing.
If we truly meditated on our own unworthiness and sin more, we would realize how much more we should show grace.
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