I had a pastor friend whose church (Grace Church) merged with another church (New Life Church.) They called the new, joint congregation, Grace Life. I like that!
What does a grace life look like?
If I took this grace thing seriously, I would be at peace with myself. I would know that I am totally loved, accepted, and forgiven, and nothing I could do would ever change that! That allows me the freedom to be focused on other things, like whatever God has put in my heart to be and do, like fully engaging with a person, like smiling and laughing, a lot.
It means no guilt, no shame, no fear, no rehearsing my greatest hits of personal failures. It means I absorb these facts, until I believe them all of the time. It means putting down those accusatory feelings as soon as they crop up.
That’s part of the story. The other part is to extend the same grace to others as was extended to me. Loving people as they are they are, instead of looking down on them, or trying to turn them into our projects to be fixed. How about treating people with dignity and giving them the benefit of the doubt? How about being friends with people whose lifestyle takes us out of our comfort zone? How about making friends with people that are supposed to be “the enemy?”
The grace life is a good life, and a good way to live out our faith by counteracting some of the graceless things Christians have said and done.
