Grace is thoughtful. It considers a back-story, an upbringing, the entire person, and not just a tiny single slice of their life.
Grace brings wholeness to a hasty judgement; it regards my own flaws first, in light of the grace I’ve also been given.
Grace brings what could be instead of what should’ve been. Grace covers my past and empowers my future. It does not condemn nor condone, but convicts and re-creates.
Grace confronts the worst of a person and does not shy away from surgical rebuke: because at our worst, we realize how much we must confront the ugliness inside. But grace restores there, in the wreckage. It is always healing the fractured fallen weary sinner. It is not what we deserve, but what we need: and Jesus saw what we deserved, but gave us what we needed instead. That’s grace. Love unconditional, undeserved, unrelenting.
— J.S.
J.S. Park: Hospital Chaplain 
Amen Brother! This message cannot be too often repeated.
I’ve been in Christ for 50 years and have often found myself in Christian circles that struggle to walk in grace (probably because they have never experienced it).
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I’ll try to have grace for even those who abuse grace; usually they’re on their first lap of faith too. 🙂
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Thank you , brother, for this….. I need to remember this much more often.
Reminds me of song from one of my favourite artists, Wayne Watson.
His song entitled Grace, begins. “Grace keeps on giving me things I don’t deserve.
Mercy keeps withholding things I do.”
The struggle for me is this: to remember what I’ve been forgiven. Then pass on that forgiveness.
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Luke 7:47 all the way.
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Grace will never be “understood” theologically, only anecdotally from the heart. A gracious reminder of the difference between the disciple and the Saviour.
Peace
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Reminds me of my favorite quote by Andy Stanley:
“Grace. It’s what I crave most when my guilt is exposed. The very thing I’m hesitant to extend when I’m confronted with the guilt of others — especially when their guilt has robbed me of something I consider valuable. Therein is the struggle, the struggle for grace. It’s this struggle that reminds us that grace is more story than doctrine.
“When we are on the receiving end, grace is refreshing. When it is required of us, it is often disturbing. But when correctly applied, it seems to solve just about everything.”
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