Grace Brings Us Home

II Samuel 7:23-24, And who is like your people; the ones on Earth that God went out to redeem for himself, and to make a name for himself, and to perform great and awesome wonders by driving out others and their gods from before your people whom you redeemed. You have established your people as your very own forever and you have become their God. 

The above passage is paraphrased, yet it shouts loudly that hope is real and we have a reason for holding onto to it. When we are young we love to play hide and seek, but when we mature we realize that we cannot really hide who or what we are. For some people that is a traumatic realization and brings about real grief and sadness in our hearts. It begins a searching in our hearts that leads us to the throne of our Creator. The fear that we bring to his throne dissipates when we comprehend that rather than finding punishment we are redeemed! Who could even begin to believe that the heart that comes to God in sadness and grieving over what we have become is precisely the kind of heart the Father wants from us.

To be claimed by God as his own is something most of us cannot fathom. Yet his word promises us his claim is not for a lifetime, but forever. Wow! I enter his presence with a broken spirit, a wounded life, and an empty heart, and rather than finding a lecture I find redemption, I find grace, and I wasn't even searching for it.  

In II Samuel 9:13 we read, and Mephiboseth lived in Jerusalem, because he always ate at the king's table; he was lame in both feet. When we are redeemed, the Father reserves a place for us at his table. Places at his table are not reserved for the handsomest or most beautiful. He doesn't reserve the best seats for those who look like they have been chiseled from stone. At the King's table there is room for the lame, the deaf, the blind, the bullied, the rejected, the wounded, the grieving, the lonely, the star, the genius, the beautiful, the handsome, the .....  Our God has room for all no matter who we are or what we are. He does not define us the way the world does and that is why grace is so refreshing and needed.  Thank you Father for redeeming me! 

Another Face of Grace

We are surrounded by grace, but usually have trouble recognizing it. While watching a movie the other night I saw a wonderful picture of grace that Hollywood of all places was responsible for. It was a fictional movie, but the message was powerful to me and I appreciated the way it showed what grace in action looks like.

In the movie, Forrest Gump, following another unsuccessful shrimping attempt Lt. Dan said to Forrest maybe he should ask God to tell us where the shrimp are. The next scene is a classic view of grace as Forrest is shown in a southern black church dressed with the choir clapping and singing.  Lt. Dan is sitting in the back of the congregation in his wheelchair laughing at Forrest and drinking hard liquor.  

These two guys didn't look anything like the regular congregation members.  One was kind of slow and the other was more into mocking God than searching for him, yet they still found a place within this congregation, and that is precisely the point grace makes. It's not about what you can bring to God's church, it's about God bringing you into his church even with all of the baggage you are carrying. Inside his people is where God's grace works powerfully, but we have to open the doors to them.

What can a slow witted person like Forrest offer a congregation? Nothing except himself, I may be out of place here, but I will put on the choir robe and sing and clap, because I am searching for God.  In God's people, those like Forrest find open arms and acceptance, because it is about God and not about us.

Lt. Dan had no compelling reason to go with Forrest so why did he go?  I believe he was searching as well, but he was searching on his terms and he'd bring what I want to bring with me in the search. Yet, clearly the director tried to show that even with a bottle of liquor and a mocking attitude this particular church still had an open door for Lt. Dan.

What a great presentation of grace.  Now contrast this picture to the one Tony Perkins presented in his statement about not inviting just anyone to his church? And contrast it also to the picture the pastor painted in the same meeting when he shouted if you don't like what we say you can get out!  Those are not the words of grace.  As Philip Yancey likes to say, grace like water flows down to the deepest depths and can reach anyone.  That's the picture Hollywood painted in this moving scene. Shouldn't we try to paint the same kind of picture ourselves? Transform me my God.

What Does Grace Look Like?

I am reading a book of Essay's by Elie Wiesel and in one of them he shares this thought. "Some will say to me, yes, but when you needed help nobody came forward. True, but it is because nobody came forward to help me that I felt it my duty to help them." 

A humbling indictment of the nature of man! It is so easy for us to say, look I'm comfortable, I'm safe.  Why should I care about those people? It's really none of my business. Besides, I'm only one person what impact could I possibly have? We love rationalization, it does help us to feel justified for looking the other way, for keeping our hands in our pockets, for averting our eyes. Yet deep in our hearts we know it for what it is; a cop out. 

What did the rationalization of the people of his day cost Mr. Wiesel? His mother, his little sister, his father, his friends, his community, his city, his faith in his God. Because nobody came forward, Mr. Wiesel as a young boy watched his mother and little sister walk hand in hand to the gas chamber. No boy, no child, no person should have to watch his loved ones be forced to walk to their deaths. Yet, that is exactly what we allow to occur every time we refuse to come forward. His wound is so deep that Mr. Wiesel cannot sit back and watch others go through the hell he went through. That is why he lectures us so powerfully by saying, "It is one's duty to ask every day, where am I in relation to God and to others?"

What does grace look like? It looks like a man with a wound so deep that he is haunted by memories so many years later, yet, when he sees the longing look for help in the eyes of others today, he steps forward. He doesn't want another little boy to watch his mother and his little sister be forced to walk to the horror of the gas chamber. Grace says, I went through that pain and I don't ever want you to go through it, so I will stand up and fight for you, because you matter! Thank you, Mr. Wiesel, from the depth of my heart that your words have have begun to soften. I was becoming too comfortable, too safe, too full of rationalizations.