Before I begin, let me say that I am a 22 year old college kid who is about to graduate and still has a lot to learn about the world. But this is one lesson that I feel God has been harping on with me lately. That's the lesson of grace: true, perfect, amazing, grace.
Typically when we think about grace we think of it in terms of ourselves. We think of the mistakes that we've made and the regrets that we have and how perfect our God is because He forgives us for every bit of it. Not just forgiveness though, He completely washes us clean as if it never happened. AND He sent His son to die brutally on a cross so that He could do that for us. Wow, right?
Grace is a beautiful thing to realize and experience it. I thank God daily for His incessant love and forgiveness. And it used to stop there for me. It actually stops there for a lot of us. That's our human nature kicking in. Our flesh likes to tell us: "It's all about me!" No, it's not.
It's one thing to receive grace, but another to extend it. It's easy to forgive your sibling when they irritate you. It's easy to let something small that a stranger does to you slide. But what about when someone knowingly and honestly hurts you? What happens when someone decides that they no longer owe you anything anymore? What do you do when you have to make a hard decision that you know is right but you get treated like a villain because of it? We're talking Taylor Swift Bad Blood type of hurt.
How did I use to act? I got mad. I chose to be angry because that was the easiest thing to do. If they're going to be cruel and hate me then I'll do the same to them. We're told to turn our cheek but I feel that I rarely see it in action; myself guilty as charged. We are so willing to accept God's grace when we mess up, but when someone else messes up or does something we disagree with, we judge, we get mad, or worse; we hate. That makes no sense. How can we be so quick to accept His forgiveness, but so unwilling to forgive others?
This is what we like to forget about grace. We like to keep it all about us because it's easier not to forgive people when they have hurt us. We are humans after all. We have feelings and emotions. When another person does something that cuts us so deep, we want to protect ourselves rather than feel vulnerable. We don't want to make any kind of acknowledgment that maybe we were wrong, too.
While there are some relationships that are better left untouched in our lives, just being able to let go of the hurt and anger is enough. Try instead of cursing that person's name, praying for them, because they probably acted that way for a reason. Every person has a story and has some kind of hurt in their life. It's wrong of us to believe that our hurt is greater than another's.
We are given one command: that is to love your neighbor as yourself. That means forgiving the unforgivable. This is where real grace lies; where we are able to let go of the sin that makes us human and see one another as God sees us. I choose to think of grace like a present; it is better to give than to receive.
