It might seem a little confusing and odd at first, but we are just a simple community of misfits searching for something larger than ourselves.
Feel free to check out the article below, browse through our various menus or contact Stephen Miracle.
“Grace makes beauty out of ugly things.” -U2 (Grace)
I believe we are at our most basic selves when we are driving. We don’t know anyone that we’re driving next to, nor do we even see them for a prolonged period of time. This lack of social accountability allows us to throw our higher human virtues out of the window. We don’t have to fold under the pressure of the virtuous crowd. We create a false sense of safety within our car that tells us it is the perfect opportunity to let go.
We can become the part of ourselves that we feel guilty for in every other situation.
We Are All Guilty
I’m not only talking about those drivers with a death wish either. I’m no longer a maniac driver, but I still fall prey to the carnal self when driving. I am talking about the rest of us who believe we can show everyone who is boss with our cars; those of us who teach the other drivers that switching lanes in front of us is the wrong thing to do.
We all do it at one point or another. An individual lights up his turn signal and we edge closer to the car in front of us. Inside of ourselves, we are telling that person they aren’t driving smart and we use our car as a teaching tool.
We Have All Made Mistakes And Needed Grace
The problem is we’ve also been on the other side of the situation. We’ve visited a friend in a foreign city or had to turn back around because we forgot our credit card. We’ve gotten caught in a lane that was ending and didn’t know about it or we thought that we had more time before we had to get in the other lane before our turn came upon us. If we remember correctly, we didn’t need a stranger to teach us that we made a mistake. We needed a stranger to show us grace.
Grace Is The Key To Change Our Worlds
It is much easier to receive grace than it is to give it. We would much rather teach someone a lesson than hit our brakes to allow them in front of us. Maybe it stems from our own selves failing to receive grace from others, but we have inner resistance to showing grace to others.
Think about it for a moment. When was the last time you’ve made the decision to show grace to someone rather than make a statement to them? If our goal is to change our worlds, we will not accomplish this by making statements. The root of all true personal change is grace.
Popularity: 25% [?]
- « The Daily Ripple Effect(Previous Article)
- When Life’s Trail Suddenly Stops »(Next Article)
Did you enjoy this article?
Click Here To Get Free And Instant Altnoise Updates Sent To You.
Voice Your Opinion
5 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
I don’t know if I agree with you completely. I don’t think it’s as hard for us to show grace to others as you seem to imply. We show grace to others when we open doors, when we don’t tell off the person who cut in front of us in line, when we say to our child…mistakes happen, and so forth. Is it easier to receive grace? For sure (at times). God blesses us in ways that we can’t even imagine, so in that sense yes, far easier to accept grace. BUT sometimes it’s hard to receive grace from others…when they freely offer up forgiveness when one might not be ready for it.
Good post. made me think some.
I probably did take our lack of grace to a bit of an extreme.. possibly for a writing effect.
But I don’t think that opening doors constitutes grace. I would label it being polite rather than showing grace.
I do agree that there are several occasions where receiving grace is actually harder than giving it.
But when you stop and think about it Miracle, grace is unmerited favour. Grace is when we get something that we don’t deserve.
Being polite can fall into that category. It depends upon the circumstances doesn’t it? And when you consider that everyone on earth is guilty of murder (by hanging Jesus Christ on the cross) ….does anyone of us “deserve” to have basic politeness extended toward us. So… Grace is extended every time we are nice to someone, every time we don’t take “revenge” for something done that was wrong and so forth.
When I started looking at what grace was, and who we were at heart, it made a whole lot things seem as important as they really are. How do we extend grace to others…as effortlessly as it seems that God does?
Good call Annette…
I suppose basic politeness does fall into the category of grace.
You have made me curious about the thoughts that were going through your head during that last statement you made on your comment.
Could you expound upon them?
we are called to be imitators of Christ. That’s what we “do” as believers.
God extends grace to us in ways that we can’t even at times imagine. Consider for instance..drinking orange juice all the things that we can be thankful to God for. The weather, the trees, the insects, the shipping, the picking the purchasing at the store … and so on and so forth. All these little graces of God that add up to one more grace of God to us. And that’s just ONE glass of juice.
So how can I, as an imitator of God, show grace to others even in a little way which may add up with other graces that just is one more evidence of God’s grace in the life of my hubbie, my child, my extended family, my community and so forth.
One thinks of these things…. and it … just makes me think more on how can I be called of God and show further evidence in my life and my total dependence upon his grace? Those are some of my thoughts.