F-R-E-E that spells Free
Hola de Denton!
Well, I'm in Art Six, coffee shop (I know, crazy thought, eh?), writing and thinking and breathing. Life is lovely, no? I got out of English class about an hour ago and then headed over here for some "Kelsey-time". As I scrounged up a ridiculous four bucks for my soy chai latte, I thought about a simple promise that Christ gives me everyday: "I am not going to leave you. I will be with you and give you the strength to bear up under everything that is placed in your path." I've been thinking on that grace lately. Grace is such a pivotal part of the Christian walk, but church-goers normally only take into account the grace that the Father gives us personally. What about the grace we give others?
I believe that Christianity coincides with the grace not only given to us by the Father, but also the grace that we offer and receive from others. This is to do as Christ does. If I am walking with a person who is wanting to live as Christ lived, why would I hesitate to trust the person to give me grace? And also, should I not also trust myself to give them grace? This is a simple thought until you consider that if you and I BOTH need grace, you WILL hurt me and I WILL hurt you. If this wasn't so, why then would grace be needed or much less offered?
I tend to be a person who concentrates a lot on reality. In saying this, I personally find it quite rational to walk in this grace, both giving and receiving. Do you agree?
I'd like to know your thoughts as well. What is your take and angle and belief on grace?
I love you more than you know and I'm thinkin of you. KeLSey
Posted by Anonymous on April 7, 2008 at 5:23 PM
Well, may i first off start by saying that you write really well. There's so much clarity in it. It's not just the mindless ramblings of someone...That being said, I read your newest post, and I was about to comment on it. I then realized that I hadn't read a couple of the other ones, only the first one. So, I read them. When I came to this one, I really like it, but the thing that shocked me the most was that no one commented on what they thought grace was, or at least what grace was to them.
I totally agree with you. You come at it from a lot of angles, and I think that really puts it into perspective. Often we do only think of grace as that blessing that God bestows upon us. What weird is, sometimes I think we only think about the first grace. Sometimes I only think we concentrate on when we first were "saved," but we totally forget that salvation means that his grace is extended daily. We forget that we are in a work in progress and will never reach the level of perfection until Christ returns. Because of that, we are given grace everyday.
I really like how you brought it to a personal, human level though, more of a one-on-one thing with each other. We should expect grace from those who have been given grace, and we should give grace because we have been given the same. Sometimes I think we forget that we will hurt each other, no matter how hard we try not to or how much we are trying to be like Christ. Sometimes we don't even mean to or realize that we even had. The only way we can function as a society and, more specifically, a Christian body is to give grace. Without that, we would all be constantly upset at one another.
I am not sure if that was all the direction you were trying to go with that. Looking back, I realize that you already made most of the points that I just put. I guess that's my long way of saying that I agree with you, and I think we all need to be reminded just how amazing grace is. Thank you for concentrating on reality, because you have a lot of insight that is a real encouragment.
James Economidis