Grace is so Unfair

Grace is just plain not fair.

By design grace is unfair because at the heart of grace is that it is undeserved, unearned.

Grace is what we receive from God and others and what we generously give to each other. 

Grace is forgiveness, compassion, understanding, and a willingness to love

especially when that love is undeserved. 

This can be such a struggle to deal with when I see others making selfish decisions and yet feel they are rewarded even in their ‘me’ attitudes. 

What I fail to reflect on is that by being jealous and judgemental I am stepping right into my own self-focused place.

I often write about the opportunities I have been given because of the trials in my own life. 

These opportunities are such a gift that it eases the pain of my circumstances.

Don’t get me wrong, I would rewind in a heartbeat and change some of the traumas of life.

But I am thankful for what has come out of the hard times. 

Too often instead of grace for others I grab a measuring stick. 

I waste time reviewing my own pain believing I know how easy others have lived in theirs.

The truth is that I have no clue what they struggle with or what is in their hearts. 

When I lost my son to suicide someone said that is the worst thing any mother could go through.

Weeks later God showed me through another mother’s pain that I shouldn’t measure and keep score.

A grandfather backing out of his driveway backed over his four year old granddaughter. 

She didn’t survive this moment in time. 

Her mother ran out to see the worst nightmare that she never even imagined.

Not only did she grieve her daughter but she knew that her own father could 

never get past what he unknowingly caused. 

My loss was tremendous but not the worst ever endured.

While I am in the grocery store and someone cuts in line or grabs the last roasted chicken just as I reached for it. While I am in traffic or the doctor’s waiting room and someone acts in an inconsiderate way perhaps they are distracted.

Distracted by what life is throwing at them.

Grace is mine to give or to withhold. 

How many times have others noticed me being distracted and in that distraction inconsiderate?

I would rather they give me grace and move on than shaking their fist and screaming into my space.

Grace is defined as unmerited favor. 

So by definition we don’t earn it but are gifted with it.

So it is ours to gift others with as well.

In Him’

Joyful

4-13-19