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I am reading a book called Saving Grace by Kirsten Powers. Powers is a New York Times bestselling author and a political commentator who writes about her own struggles with grace - especially as it relates to those with whom she disagrees strongly. She writes:
Grace is amazing. It's the sweet sound that cracks open a hardened heart. It smooths the edges of rough regret about the things we did and the things we failed to do. It gives us permission to accept that we were doing the best we could with the information we had -- or as Maya Angelou said, “You did. . . what you knew how to do, and when you knew better, you did better.” Grace tills the ground so that peace, wholeness, and completeness can take root in our burdened bodies, relationships, and the world.
Powers goes on to talk about how hard it is to actually practice grace: “It's something we love to receive, but often the last thing most of us want to offer. Instead, we incline ourselves toward what author Phillip Yancey calls ‘ungrace,’ withholding that which the world desperately needs.” Powers quotes Lisa Sharon Harper to sum it up this way: “Our lack and misunderstanding of grace and shrunken capacity to give grace is one of the things that makes the world such a brutal place.”
In the second letter of Paul in our Bible to the church at Corinth, Paul writes these words: “You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.” (2 Corinthians 9:11, NIV) These are often words we read during Stewardship season, or maybe Thanksgiving. Perhaps we think about them as focusing mainly on being generous with our financial gifts, and that could certainly be true. But what if Paul is also talking about how we have each been “enriched” so that we might be generous with God's grace? Since God has shown us God's amazing grace, can we then be generous in sharing grace with our world and those we encounter who so desperately need it? Where is God asking you to show grace today? And will you?
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