No Shaky Facades

God looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. Everyone has turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.  Palm 53: 2, 3

Funny that such a bleak verse should lead me to such a delightful concept:  grace.  Chris’ voice gained a victorious staccato yesterday as it swelled around the idea of grace.  What a glorious gift from God, offered freely, not a once-and-for-all proposition, but through and about and overarching and inside every moment of every day. 

What a delight it is to rest in our complete brokenness.  Beyond resting in the flat-out truth, and not having to laboriously create some sort of shaky façade, we can drop our tools and run to the source of strength and goodness, no more messing around. 

And the second great delight: it releases us from judgment of those around us.  They, like myself, have already been judged and found lacking.  Therefore we can freely share this great gift given to us.  A generosity of spirit, a mercy that we have ourselves received.

 Bonhoeffer in Life Together articulates this truth well: “When we come to a clearer and more sober estimate of our own limitations and responsibilities, that makes it possible more genuinely to love our neighbor” and “Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging others, we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as ourselves.” And “I can no longer condemn or hate a brother [or sister] for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me. His face that hitherto may have been strange and intolerable to me is transformed through intercession into the countenance of a brother for whom Christ died.” 

The heady, idealistic times when we asked anyone who lived with us in Mexico for more than two weeks to read that book.  We were talking and floating in the pool yesterday, savoring the joys of life in community.  That is how we were created to live. Community is a daily celebration of God’s grace.