It amazes me.

This breath that fills and empties hand crafted lungs.  Grace that extends this journey to another day rather than being caught up to heaven.  And the mirror of this, in that this same grace that will capture me up rather than continuing to live in this decaying shell.

These prayers that raise as a beautiful fragrance.  Grace to seek and ask and be heard.

It amazes me.

These people.  The ones who gather round.  Those I’ve met and some I probably never will.  The grace of community to lift up, hold up, and walk along side.  That ask the hard questions and don’t let you off with flippant answers.

It amazes me.

Discipline.  His merciful grace that doesn’t allow me to stay in sin.  His desire to see me grow to be more like Him.

And this grace…

this grace that gives me longing to know it. wear it. breathe it. ….

.

What is amazing you about grace today?

How has God been amazing you with your One Word for the year?

Yesterday was an incredibly challenging and taxing day, today will be more of the same.

So, today, I want to hear from you.

We all have experienced grace in one form or another.  We live it.  We breathe it.  We wear it like skin.

Aside from grace of salvation, share your most memorable or favorite or cherished story of grace.  It can be your own story or that of someone near and dear to you.

Paul writes in Romans that we are to rejoice with those who rejoice – and I can’t think of a greater thing to rejoice over than grace received and given.

This year of Grace looks nothing like I thought it would.  I thought I’d be shoulder deep in God teaching me to have grace, to extend compassion.  And He has, but what amazes me is that in these last six months, is He has shown me more His grace for me.

It is something that continues to blow me away.

In His showing and overwhelming me with His grace for me, I’m learning how to show grace to others.  It’s still not easy. Honestly, it may never be.  I believe that if it were easy He’d have nothing left to teach me, and there is a chance I’d take grace for granted.

That is something I never want to do.

As I look back over these six months I see the threads of grace that bind each moment together.

I’m realizing that this grace learning won’t be finished when the clock strikes 2012.  He is just barely scratching the surface of how deep grace goes.

(to see all my OneWord Grace posts you can click here)

Yesterday wasn’t a good day.

A series of errors on my part that shaped my mood and my entire day.  The kind of day that makes me think I my phone case should consist of a couple layers of bubble wrap.

Yes.  That happened.

Even though my day was bad and my attitude was worse, Shawn and I (especially me) saw grace throughout that whole day.

His grace toward me in a situation in which I tell him to yell at me because I deserved it.  Grace from God in the absence of a large financial transaction we were expecting to make.  Grace in simple things like buying two bags of cookies for cheesecake crust instead of just one, and needing the second bag after you realize you forgot to put sugar in your cheesecake and the crust plops into the batter you’re attempting to pour back into the mixing bowl.

Grace comes in many different shapes.

Like remembering to remove the sharp cutting strip off the plastic wrap box, in which your dogs will find when raiding the bag of recycling you left on the floor.

Shawn’s encouragement to me throughout the day yesterday was, everything worked out.

Grace!

I laid in bed last night – and even this morning – thinking about what the day was like, and how God wove grace throughout every circumstance.  I know things could have been a lot worse.

Do you notice & rejoice over the small graces God weaves throughout your bad days?

Shawn and I were watching a TV show earlier this week in which a man who was in prison for killing a man was up for parole.  The wife & daughter of the victim were at the hearing bent on doing anything to prevent the prisoner from getting released.

I sat watching the show unfold and began to wonder, what does grace look like in this situation?  I believe in second chances.  I want to live my life as a person of the second chance.  But what does second chance living look like in this situation?

Could I offer grace?  To a man who murdered my father, brother, mother, husband, best friend.

What about someone who merely betrayed someone close to me?

Could I forgive?

In truth I don’t know.  I could say yes, but the truth would only come out if I was forced into a situation like the one in the TV show.

The fact of the matter is, is that I’m supposed to.  If I’m going to live my life as a reflection of Christ I must forgive, and I must offer grace.

Jesus didn’t simply forgive those who were prideful, told small lies and stole things.  He died for the soul of every murderer on death row too.

To offer grace & forgiveness does not mean that consequences shouldn’t be rendered.  It simply means that we look at others as Christ looks at them.  It means taking off hatred, slander, and oppression.

As the story unfolded the man who had killed was put in a position to either kill the victim’s wife and daughter or be killed himself.  The man, who lived daily with his sin & sought redemption, chose the greater good and refused to kill them.  He chose to protect them.  The show ended with the daughter telling a police officer to give the man who killed her father a message.  “I will be at his next parole hearing.  I will be there to support him.”

Granted this was just a script written by writers for the enjoyment of the viewers, but there is a greater message here.  The daughter could have continued to hold a grudge against him.  She could have continued to live under the weight of unforgiveness.  Instead, she chose grace.

If you were faced with a similar situation (doesn’t even have to be similar) how would you handle grace?

For the last several weeks I’ve been reading through Leviticus. One of four books with 613 laws handed down by God to the Israelites through Moses. God was often repetitive making evident that the letter of the law rather than the spirit of the law was crucial.

With consequences of death for breaking most of the laws it is easy to see that God was not only serious, but demanded perfection if one were to have communion with Him. And because He knew these sinful people could never reach perfection He established the sacrificial system.

In reading 3,451 (+/-) years later I can’t but help but to be over thankful for Christ’s death and resurrection. For the grace & mercy that was poured out as He breathed His last breath and three days later triumphed over death as He took a first renewed breath.

I’m constantly amazed at this grace. Grace that doesn’t demand that I make sacrifices to try and appease God, but a grace that indwells within me a desire to do His will simply because I love Him and He loves me.

How have you seen this grace from the law play out in your life?

In the solitary shadows of blooming Olive Trees a man wrestles with the next several hours.  Not a wrestling of I don’t want to do this, but a war against an unseen enemy.  His friends heavy with food and Passover wine slumber several yards away.  He knew what was coming, the price He’d pay.  A sacrifice that would over shadow every sacrifice that had taken place since the fall of man.

By this time it was about noon, and darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock.  The light from the sun was gone.  And suddenly, the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn down the middle.  Then Jesus shouted, “Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!” And with those words He breathed His last.

When the Roman officer overseeing the execution saw what had happened, he worshiped God and said “Surely this man was innocent.”  And all the crowd that came to see the crucifixion saw what had happened, they went home in deep sorrow.  But Jesus’ friends, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance watching.

Luke 23:44 – 49

And with His last breath the birth pains of grace increased.  A grace that would soon be birthed for the redemption of man’s debt of sin.

Tell them the Lord looked down from His heavenly sanctuary.  He looked down to earth from heaven to hear the groans of the prisoners, to release those condemned to die.

Psalm 102: 19 & 20