The Mystery of Grace
No Strings Attached
Charles Portis explains in his book True Grit, “ You must pay for everything in this world one way and another. There is nothing free except the Grace of God. You cannot earn that or deserve it.” Portis explains that the grace given by God is unlike anything you have to earn. He states how nothing in this world is free.
With that being said, it makes it hard to believe that God just gives us grace wanting nothing in return. All we have to do to get grace is to accept this wondrous gift. I personally believe God’s grace is something no person can measure; it is unmeasurable. When asked for a favor, I typically expect something in return. For example, when asked to take a certain person to their doctor’s appointment, I expect them to put forth money for gas. This is an example of what a favor is not. A true favor is when you do something for someone else not expecting something in return. This shows how great God’s love for us is; He expects nothing in return.
Martin Luther mentions that, “ This grace of God is a very great, strong, mighty, and active thing. It does not lie asleep in the soul. Grace hears, leads, drives, draws, changes, works all in man, and lets itself be distinctly felt and experienced. It is hidden, but its works are evident.” Nothing in this world is more powerful than the grace of God. No matter what we do God still loves us and forgives us. Even when we do not deserve grace we are given that gift from our gracious God. His grace does not discriminate against gender, race, religion, income, or sexuality. No matter who you are, as long as you accept the gift, it is yours.
In The Single Woman: Life, Love, and a Dash of Sass, Mandy Hale tells her readers to, “ Love people who hate us. Pray for people who have wronged you. It won’t just change their life…it’ll change yours.” By praying for the people who have wronged you, you are extending grace to them. Everything about this statement goes against everything in our human nature. When done wrong, we as humans always hold resentment, hate, anger, and vengeance. Hale argues that by praying and displaying grace towards the ones that have hurt us, it will change the lives of those involved.
One way to extend grace is forgiveness. Forgiveness not only heals the person who has done wrong, but also the one that was hurt. To begin the healing process, you must forgive. forgiveness sets you free from holding all the hurt and anger inside. It is an incredibly difficult thing to do, and I speak from personal experience.
When I was twelve years old, my whole life was shaken. My parents were fighting all the time over money and drugs. My grandfather, Poppie, was always there to comfort me. Poppie was unjudgemental and he always knew the right words to say to make me happy. Over the span of a few months, Poppie’s health deteriorated slowly, until one day he was here and the next, he was gone.
After Poppie’s death, that’s when things escalated in my home. slowly but surely we started losing our possessions. First, it was one of our cars. Second, my mother lost her jobs. Third, we lost our home and we were forced to sleep in our Ford Explorer, church basements, hotels, and in our neighbor’s spare bedroom. During this whole process, my own great uncle, Eugene, decided to call the police on us and accuse us of false accusations. Eugene stated we were not feeding our five dogs so, the police decided to have the local vet euthanize our dogs.
My sisters and I experienced a situation that a great majority of children would never face, all before the start of my freshman year of high school. We were put into the foster care system which frightened me because I was the oldest of my sisters which made me responsible for them. Within a year of Poppie’s death, I lost everything. Throughout this advancement of unfortunate events, I came to ask myself many questions. What did I do to deserve this? Would things have been different if Poppie had never died? How could my own parents choose drugs over their own daughters?
For the longest time after I was hurt, I could not even hear or say the names of the people who hurt me without feeling anger boil up within me like a geyser on the verge of erupting. Showing grace to those people was the very last thing I ever wanted to do. I could say I forgave them but in my soul, I did not. We can trick the mind into thinking we forgive but our hearts and souls are not so easily tricked. In my immaturity, I decided to “bury” all my anger with the pretense that nothing was wrong. I ignored the hate and hurt for so long that soon I convinced myself that I was over everything that had happened.
One day during church my pastor read a passage from the bible about grudges and forgiveness. In Ephesians 4:31–32, Paul declares, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” That day I realized I needed to deal with all the hurt and anger in my heart. I am not saying I fully forgive the people who hurt me but slowly I am letting go of the past. Each day I forgive more and more. Just because I forgive them does not mean I forget what happened. I will acknowledge what has happened but I will not hold grudges against them anymore.
Grace is more than being nice and showing mercy to people, it is something that is supposed to be cherished and valued. I believe that grace is not something that can be fully comprehended. God’s grace is and will probably always be a puzzling concept since He gives it generously to anyone who accepts it. His grace shows no limits. We do not see it, and there is no way to possibly measure it, but we can feel the effects of it in our lives each and every day. We do not deserve His grace yet He gives it to us.
My “conversations” brought up some valid points. Grace is not something you pay for, earn, or deserve. If you do not want to accept it then you will not receive it. The most important thing I have learned is that when you are given grace you need to accept it. It is not something that is thrown away. God’s grace is uncomprehending with no strings attached. In the same way, we are to show grace to others, expecting nothing in return. We should be willing to show others grace with no hesitation. I have and will always displease God and sin against Him, but because I have the grace of God, I will ALWAYS have forgiveness. He forgives me and He will continue to love through it all.
