I was thinking about this issue of grace all day today as I cooked 95 brats for a rainy-day tailgate party. Cooking 95 brats turns out to be a time consuming but extremely mundane activity.
In my previous post, I was pondering the ideas of what people need to have, be, or do in order to give and receive grace, and I must admit that the more I think about it, the more questions I come up with. I find this to be good for my thirsty soul. I was having a hard time pinpointing what exactly was needed in order to give grace to another person...I just couldn't come up with the word that fit. But I think that I've since come up with a word that I am satisfied with. Integrity. Merriam Webster doesn't really help me out all that much on this one describing integrity as a "firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values; an unimpaired condition; the quality or state of being complete or undivided". But that's the world's perspective of integrity, I would suppose. Integrity to a Christ-follower would take on a slightly different meaning in my opinion. The book Uprising: A Revolution of the Soul, (thank you, Megan for suggesting I read it) the author states that "integrity is the personification of truth." And since, as a Christian, my truth is not just truth as in fact or not fact, but my truth comes from the Word of God, then if my actions are aligned in truth, aligned with God, then that's integrity.
I'm not sure I am making a whole lot of sense to you, but to me a light bulb has come on. It's not necessarily compassion, caring, love, or anything else that compels us to give out grace to those around us. It's the desire to be in line with God. And it is that desire that compels me to give out grace.
But what's the risk of giving out grace to others? And usually at this point, I have to remind myself what the definition of grace really is...it somehow always seems to get a little blurry...For people giving out grace to other people, it would be giving out an unmerited gift, favor, act or instance of kindness, temporary exemption...(sorry Merriam Webster, I'm paraphrasing with great liberty here). So, back to the question - what is the risk of giving out this grace to others? In Les Miserables, the bishop risked him home, personal safety, general well being to allow a dangerous criminal into his home, but after that, when he saved the criminal from the authorities, what did he stand to lose then? He could have lost everything - he could have been sent to jail if he was caught, his wife, thinking him crazy, could have left him. The criminal could have thrown the gift away and come back to harm him later. In more general terms, to give an undeserved gift to someone, one risks the potential for some negative consequence always. The gift, is after all, undeserved by the recipient in the first place.
And what is the reward for giving out grace to another? Certainly we remain true to our convictions, build stronger our relationship with God, grow our integrity. We have a chance to change the world for one person in some positive way. Jesus used a discipleship model that obviously worked to change the world in a very big way. And by giving grace to one person even once could change one person's world for the better. And that person then just may turn around, give out grace, and potentially change another person's life for the better, and on and on. Is this the ultimate reward, at least for our time on earth? I guess I'm not sure. That's enough to get me excited.
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