Grace

This topic of Grace is something that's been rolling around in my head for the past four years.  I noticed a while back when our pastor talked on the subject I knew the definition of grace, and I knew in the Bible when grace was mentioned, but I also knew that I did not 'get' or understand grace.  Grace to me then was 'unmerited favor' or plainly speaking, getting something you did not deserve.  Often what muddies the water too is that grace is something we say to bless our food before meals, and it is when someone does something with a bit of class or beauty. Though grace is all of these, my knowledge of grace did not really amount to a hill of beans or make my life more amazing or fruitful.
And then I think of the song Amazing Grace and I know that grace really is amazing but I'm not sure how and I'm not sure what I have to do with it.  What does grace look like?

Well, since I arrived in Ecuador the Lord has slowly been revealing the true meaning of grace.  I've come to see that grace is quite literally the most basic, yet unnatural, responses we can have toward others.  It looks like patience when we would honestly prefer to lose our cool.  It looks like forgiveness when we'd rather hold a grudge, remind someone of their faults, or decide that we don't like them.  It looks like serving when we'd rather go first or take the bigger piece or simply watch out for our own needs.  It looks like kindness when we'd rather not notice what others need or what would give them a leg up on a task.  In essence, grace is purposefully choosing the harder road for myself so that others may be blessed in some tangible way.  (AND, it is not letting them know that you've taken the harder road and now they owe you.)

That's why grace has been kind of out of reach for me (and maybe for you) because I'm so eternally connected to my own needs and wants and thoughts.  I don't often put aside what would make me happy so that I can specifically bless others and go unnoticed.  It is so hard not getting credit for those acts of kindness I perform.  They help me to feel as if I'm noble and Christ-like.  Yet, as I read through the Bible, I notice that Christ quite often refused the attention that many wanted to give Him.  Often he even told people to keep quiet when He healed a person or brought someone back from the dead.  He was not looking for the noteriety, He was looking for the opportunity to serve, period.

So, now that I've noticed that grace is very do-able, but just plain hard, I understand that the Lord expects me to give grace out by the bucketloads.  That is how one becomes more like Christ.  So, when one of our kids was not invited to a friend's birthday party but all of her other friends were, we opted for grace.  What is easy?  No, but to forgive was the right thing to do.  And on those many, many other occasions when someone disappoints us or they hurt us or they need us or they frustrate us, the right thing to do is to handle it with grace--Ahhhh. 

I think the main reason that it took till coming to Ecuador to see this is because we live in a small community of people. Our town of Shell contains about 7000 people and of those, maybe 100 are missionaries.  Therefore, we missionaries go to school together, church together, youth group together, Bible study together, live together, etc. You get the idea.  Well, I realized very quickly that my flawed nature was on display for all to see (of course, not just mine but that of my husband and kids too).  In a small community, we cannot help but be privy to one another's true self.  It therefore became apparent that I needed grace.  I needed it for the mess that we Thompsons leave on the compound playground, for the Spanish that we butcher while trying to learn the language, for the homework that we simply didn't get done in time, for our late arrival into church, for our leaving our bikes parked in someone else's yard, for my needing to borrow flour or an onion or butter or any number of things, and for our needing help to find our missing bird--a second time!  There are a million other things here that I could add to the list too.  These people here see that we're messy, needy, basic people.  We can't hide it for one second. 

So, having said all that, I came to the realization that if we need grace from so many others around us, then dog-gone-it, I need to be doling out grace by the bucket loads to others.  I know how precious it is to me, I can guess that it's pretty precious to them too.  And, humanity shows, they're going to need some grace of their own. 

Then it all came into clearer view:  God pours out His grace upon us.  We so don't deserve it.  We are all just lost little souls wandering around down here in need of someone to set us straight.  We're a mess.  God looks upon us in love and blesses us instead of curses us and loves us instead of banishing us for our sins.  He's so good to us.  All the while we should likewise notice what He does--we're a bunch of messes in need of love and grace.  So, we should be responding appropriately and in love and grace toward others.  That's how it should work.  As long as we know who we are and whose we are, we're good.  When we think we deserve great treatment or believe that we're perfect, then we're not living out of grace.