Grace Happens!

I have had the wonderful blessing of spending the last two weekends on the North Shore of Minnesota. The weather has been beautiful – bright skies, with what clouds there were passing quickly. Warm sun shining down. Woods in bud and bloom, but no annoying pest bugs out to break the mood. I’ve appreciated the wonderful blessings of the best of Minnesota weather.

The interesting thing is that none of that fine weather was predicted. Both weekends, the Twin Cities forecasters and the national Weather.com forecasters have projected cloudy, rainy, chill weather. Both weekends! My first thought is that I want to get a job where I can be so wrong so much of the time and not get fired.

Really, doesn’t it seem like weathercasters get away with an incredible con job? They tell us so definitively what to expect of the weather and then, when it doesn’t pan out, people shrug and say “well, that’s the computer models for you” or “it’s just how weather goes.” Man, what a sweetheart deal!

But it makes me think about the “con job” I could be accused of pulling off. Most of the time, I look like a pretty good Christian. I attend church, I work in various ministries, I love my God and am vocal about that. But I mess up. A lot. Rotten thoughts of anger and frustration at others. The curse words I don’t say out loud but which ring in my mind when I get obstructed. My too-often-sloppy prayer habits. I ought to be “fired” from my position as a Christ follower, if I’m holding myself to the standard I want to hold weathercasters to.

But there’s this thing called Grace. God’s unmerited favor toward me. I can’t earn it, I can’t deserve it. And I can’t lose it, because it’s God’s gift to give. So all my failures as His child, all my struggles to be better, and even all the things that I do right don’t change God’s gift of grace toward me. He’s given me grace – favor I don’t deserve – before I was even born and He’ll give me grace through all eternity, after I’m gone from this world.

Talk about a sweetheart deal…

Had times when you thought God should fire you? How has He shown His grace? Share your thoughts by clicking on “comments” below.