grace ɡrās/Submit noun 1. simple elegance or refinement of movement. "she moved through the water with effortless grace" synonyms: elegance, poise, gracefulness, finesse; 2.
the free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings.
Of all the Christian faith, I think there is one concept I struggle the most with. Both when it comes to explaining it to those unfamiliar and accepting it myself, grace is a concept too incredible for me to wrap my human brain around. A concept too sweet for my sinful soul to grasp. Upon reading the definition of the word, two simple words speak volumes to me as the most powerful and accurate description of grace: unmerited favor.
Should we choose to go back to our friend Miriam-Webster once again, the phrase can be broken down further.
un·mer·it·ed
ˌənˈmerədəd/
adjective
not deserved.
fa·vor ˈfāvər/ noun 1. an act of kindness beyond what is due or usual.
By the very bones of the word, grace means kindness beyond what is typical, given to those who are not deserving. In my own words, grace is love without measure given to those who could never measure up.
We live in a world of achievements, accolades and accreditation. With the megaphone of social media that so many of us hold in our hands, it is so easy to shout to the world how wonderful we are. Having all of the successes of our peers at our fingertips and in front of our faces at any given moment can lead to a skewed perception of the world. From our perspective, we see 'levels' of merit. We see 'levels' of beauty, of athleticism, of talent, of friendship, of worth. We see everyone around us as defined by what they have put into the world, intentional or otherwise. We see a world akin to an Olympic podium, where everyone has rank and it is plain to the world to see.
It is ironic that the most imperfect breed, humankind, is so quick to assign value based on ability and face-value characteristics. Everyone in the stratosphere has something to prove, whether it be to him or herself, to someone around them, or to the world at large. Everyone has a podium of which they are desperately trying to climb to the top.
Everyone aspires to stand at the peak of the podium, draped in a laurel wreath of recognition, but will never do so when climbing and measuring by their own means. No matter how hard you work towards your peak in recognition, there will always be someone better when seeing the world through the eyes of measured merit.
When our Father looks down on us from His Heavenly perspective, He does not see the rank of the world. If you were to look at an Olympic podium from straight in the air, how would you know who was standing the highest? It would be impossible to tell, just as it is for the One Most High, for He sees us through the eyes of grace and not of merit.
As vague as my metaphor may have been, I hope it does some justice to the passion I feel for this subject. We live in a world of trying to 'earn' worth, something it is impossible to measure. One of the largest misconceptions about Jesus, about Heaven, and about Christianity as a whole is that love must be earned. Whether by good works, lack of imperfections, outward ministry or any other means, there is a general belief that there is a Caste system to God's love. If this were the case, I would have no chance whatsoever of being loved. Speaking as myself, Hannah, I am in no way worthy of the love of Jesus Christ. I have sinned, I have strayed, I have doubted, I have repented, and I have done it all over again. I did it this week. I have done it all within the same day before. I have even done it all within the same hour.
When speaking in terms of someone who has never sinned, someone who created the universe, someone who sees all and is above all, what good is anything I can do? What worth do my accomplishments and achievements and accolades have? The answer is absolutely nothing. There is nothing I could do to 'impress' God, 'surprise' God, or make Him love me more than He already does.
While this thought is too incredibly awesome to try and comprehend, it carries a wave of peace that should wash the weight off of your shoulders. Whatever burden you carry, whatever secret you hold, whatever shame you hide, God knows all of it. He knew every single mistake you would make before you ever came to be. He knows all of the ways you will sin and fall short for the rest of your life...and guess what? He loves you anyway.
A perfect human is the definition of an oxymoron, those two words should never be placed together in the same sentence. There is no one more deserving of God's love than anyone else. There is no sense in striving to be perfect when the one who made you knew all of the ways you would sin, all of the lies you would tell, all of the ways you would disappoint your parents, all the ways you would fall short, every mistake you would ever make, and created you anyways. You exist in this world because the Creator of the universe thought you were worthy and worthy of His love. With that, the conversation ends. When the Father declares you worthy, as He did on the cross so so many years ago, there is nothing anyone else can say against you to dispute that.
God loves us with unending grace. It is unmerited, there is nothing we did to earn it and there is nothing we could ever do to deserve it. We are cloaked in his favor, kindness beyond what anyone is obligated to give.
The song Amazing Grace never spoke to me until I realized the true power of God's grace...
Amazing grace
How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
I am in awe of the blessing that is His unmerited favor. There is nothing I have done to earn this love that He so freely gives me...and that in itself is a thousand pounds of weight off of my shoulders. I will never be enough for the world. I will never be enough by any standard. But because of His amazing grace, I am saved.
His grace has loved me in my darkness, my sadness, my imperfection, my turmoil. His grace has brought me safe thus far, and His grace will bring me home.
I once was lost, but now I am found.
Was blind, but now I see.
When you hear about how Christ died for you on this Easter holiday, remember one vitally important thing. He didn’t die for the version of you that you show the world, the posed and perfectly filtered highlight reel. He died for the ugly side. The shame, the guilt, the shortcomings, the blame, the sin, and the wretchedness. He died for the flaws in all of us.
As an incredibly flawed person, I am forever in greater awe of my Creator. The more I trip over my own feet and mess up in ways unworthy of a perfect God, the more I feel the full strength of His incredible grace lifting the weight of my burdens off of my shoulders.
I am the wretch the song refers to.
PS. Sometimes I feel as though writing these posts and proclaiming my faith gives off a ‘holier than thou’ impression or implies that I think I am morally higher than the next person. On the contrary, I am so extremely imperfect and I continue to prove it everyday. I will talk to anyone, at any time of the day, about all of the ways I am flawed and all the mistakes I have made. On the same note, I will talk about how contrastingly perfect my Savior is and how he has perfected the life I seem to continually thwart with my human ways.
The next time you think you are the exception, the one child that Jesus cannot possibly love or forgive, let’s chat. I’d love to show you how delightfully wrong you are.