“Often hobbling through our church doors on Sunday morning comes grace on crutches — sinners still unable to throw away their false supports and stand upright in the freedom of the children of God. Yet, their mere presence in the church on Sunday morning is a flickering candle representing a desire to maintain contact with God. To douse the flame is to plunge them into a world of spiritual darkness.”
Brennan Manning
“We have been called to heal wounds, to unite what has fallen apart, and to bring home those who have lost their way.”
St. Francis of Assisi
“I think I would rather live on the verge of falling and let my security be in the all-sufficiency of the grace of God than to live in some pietistic illusion of moral excellence. Not that I don’t want to be morally excellent but my faith isn’t in the idea that I’m more moral than anybody else. My faith is in the idea that God and His love are greater than whatever sins any of us commit.”
Rich Mullins
‘For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith. And this is not from yourselves. It is a gift of God.’
Ephesians 2:8
My Prayer today is for grace. Grace that works itself out through love. Grace that is enabled by his love and grace to us. Perhaps as C.S. Lewis notes below, we were able to see the holy in our neighbours, as well as their humanity, then despite appearances on the surface we might see more of ourselves in them. We might be able to accept and identify with their difference, or their struggles. We might even be able to, despite their brokenness and fallibility, receive them whole.
Grace is the father who searches for us,
in our hearts
where we are blind
and lights up all the dark,
until there’s no more hiding.
And we understand then, never to judge,
another’s stumbling walk,
or to be too proud of our own.
For there is a time for us all,
when our deep need brings us to our knees.
And his great grace is beyond what we knew, or understood, before.
And we realise then, in our weakness, that only the unworthy receive.
From my Poem ‘Grace’
Living Tree Poetry 