Grace: God’s reminder to me
Posted by David on January 06, 2009

I often think about Grace, not a person but the wonderful gift that God gives to us. And as of late it has been on my mind a good deal.  I’ll admit for many years I had a problem with the idea of grace.  To me it seemed like God was doling it out unfairly.  Now as far as I know God by definition isn’t necessarily fair but He is a Just God.  And what I saw as unjust allotting of grace always perturbed me and set up a conundrum in my head. Let me explain so to avoid any scandal. 

In the past, I would look at personal friends, whom I viewed as holy, and many famous people, who were widely accepted as holy, as figures who were God’s “chosen” ones.  (“chosen,” suggesting to me that God seemed to care more about their salvation then the rest of civilization.) When I would really ponder this notion, I would get mad at God b/c it seemed that instead of loving everyone equally He was choosing to love some more then others.  The means by which I felt He did this was through the distribution of grace; meaning to some He gave what was needed while others He didn’t seem to give enough. (“Need” to me meaning the satisfactory amount of grace that would force or create the opportunity for persons to get out of their sin or spiritual rut they currently found themselves.) But this didn’t seem right b/c God loves us all and wants us all to be out of sin and in Heaven with Him. So then the question I would ask myself was, since each of us has sin and ruts, why does it seem that some get out of that sin and become holy while others don’t? My flawed answer again was that “God must just love those persons more fully and have a specific purpose in mind for them.” Then, my flawed reason would continue, “since that purpose must be fulfilled, to actualize it, God must bestow a extreme amount of grace upon that person to help them overcome their sin, which will in turn help them become the holy person God wants them to be.” But even though I knew God does call some to do miraculous things and live amazingly holy lives STILL the reasons I would come up with to explain God’s Love and bestowal of grace seemed too un-God-like.  I mean, God is a generous God and He gives us all we need.  So it can’t be that He gives some what they need while the others basically get cast into hell.

And so I wrestled with this issue of Grace for years. But the reason I am writing this blog entry is not to tell you of my short comings or episodes of faulty reason.  I am here to tell y’all of something God reminded me of the other day. Of course I’m not great theologian or can even begin to claim that I fully understand grace, through the years I think I have come to understand it a little better, by the Grace of God.  (Pun, or whatever that was, intended.) So, here is what God reminded me of in prayer the other day; an idea which healed a piece of my heart and drew me closer to the Lord. I share it with you now, hopefully you can follow…

Ever since Adam and Eve committed the “Big Screw Up,” man has hid when he falls into sin.  He hides from God and that which he is fearful of.  For instance, murders hide from the police.  Kids hide from their parents when they break something in the house that they have been repeatedly told not to touch.  Teenagers are known to isolate themselves from their families when have something which they feel needs to be hidden, like the fact they got detention at school for punching Jon Alexander in the face.  But to bring it backs to first hiders, Adam and Eve hid their bodies b/c they realized they were naked. But more importantly, they hid from God when he called out to them.  This is what I think we all do when we sin.  To use a metaphor (I think that’s what this is), Sin is like a house.  When we sin we draw further into that house.  And the more and more we sin, the deeper and deeper we isolate ourselves. You might ask; what do we isolate ourselves from? We isolate ourselves from God, the God who loves us and calls out to us.  But when we have hidden ourselves in a House of Sin we can’t hear God clearly or possibly at all.  Of course that doesn’t stop God.  To go along with it though, God is a gentleman. A gentleman who gave you Free Will.  He won’t brake down the door to your house and pull you out kicking and screaming.  He gave you free will so that you can chose The Good, chose Him.  So God knocks.  He knocks on the door to our house. He knocks on our hearts and invites us to follow Him.  Some will answer and some won’t. 

(Here’s where God spoke the good stuff to me)
So, the question still arises, why does God seem to give to some the grace they need to hear His call and get out of sin while others don’t?
The answer I received was this: God doesn’t force people to do anything, He gave us Free Will.  Grace is not some crazy Jedi/Star Wars like force that comes over you and controls your mind. God loves each and every one of us and wouldn’t violate the Free Will He gave us by controlling our minds and basically making us slaves.  At the same time because God loves each of us, He bestows His grace to everyone.  And because He is a good and generous Father, He gives each of us exactly what we need.  (HERE IT COMES…..) Question:  But how then if God sends His grace upon us in proportion to what we need, giving us ALL we need, do people still not get out of sin and end up in hell? The simple answer is we are sinful, stubborn and an untrusting people.  The more complex answer is this: We entrap our hearts in these houses.  Then we hide in the deep recesses of those houses.  But that’s of course not the end, for if it were then no one would ever be saved.  Luckily we have a good and gracious God.  God’s grace is that knocking at the door of your house. He loves all of us and does it for all of His children.  And because He loves you, He sends His grace upon you in proportion to which you need it.  In other words, there are those who are very receptive to God.  They have their ears open and the house they have hid themselves in is relatively small.  Why would God huff, puff, yell his lungs out and pound down the door for this person?  He doesn’t have to and probably wouldn’t because when God does something He does it perfectly. So, His grace knocks appropriately on that person’s door.  Then there are those whose house is a friggin mansion and they have hidden back in the room farthest away from the front door.  Well, God loves you and wants you to be happy so He wants you to chose Him and walk with Him (because nothing else can truly fulfill us but God) and so He knocks like crazy, nearly breaking down the door, and yells at the top of His lungs crying out for His beloved.

Now it “make or break time” because the next step belongs to us. We have to answer the door.  God will only knock.  He will respect our Free Will and allow us to be the stubborn little brats who won’t leave their miserable house if that’s what we want to choose. This can explain why sometimes big events happen and why some people respond to that event by having a huge conversion while others never turn toward God and answer that door.  Some will even walk farther away from God.  Luckily, that won’t stop God. He will keep pouring out His graces and knocking at our hearts till the day we die. That’s the type of God we have; a good God, a loving God and a gracious God. 

With that, may God bless you abundantly with His graces. May your spiritual ears be cleaned allowing you to hear God’s call and swiftly run to the door answering it so that His Holy Spirit may fully dwell within you.
-david

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