I must confess

Okay, this is my own response to my last blog. You know it is so easy to preach grace and encouragement to people because I really believe it and know that God is able to pick us up out of our mess. However, shortly after writing my last blog about not letting someone count you out, I did just that. I actually wish that I had only counted a basketball team out (Go Bucks!!! Final Four Baby!!!), but this time it was a person.

Sometimes it's just so natural to call a game when the cards are stacked against someone. Grace is a lot easier to extend to a stranger, but when it hits home, that's when the odds really seem insurmountable. It is those moments in our lives when we look at someone else's mess and literally turn up our nose. That's what I did. I turned up my nose, scrunched up my face, and said "yuck, what a waste!" (This is the transparent real talk that I'm known for) Truth is I'm glad that Jesus didn't say that when he was looking at me. He didn't say, "She did what?!?! Why would I waste my blood on her?" It's a good thing that I'm not God because that is probably what I would say.

The amazing thing about grace is that it literally cleanses you from all your filth and shame. Grace knows where you've been, what you've done, and how long you did it. Yet, it still decides to call you, choose you, and cover you. The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. God knew your mess when he called you, but He also knew that His grace really was sufficient. I guess when I'm having those prideful, self-righteous moments, God reminds me that the same grace that has kept me from my sins (it is by grace that we are saves not of works, lest any man should boast), is the same grace that is able to deliver others from their sins. Grace is so powerful that it doesn't just save us in our mess, but it truly delivers us from our mess.

"Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom 5:20-21