Too Much Grace

I have to start by saying that I am amazed by God this week.  After I wrote my last post, like as soon as I hit the "publish" button, I started musing about grace.  Was what I wrote too focused on grace and ignoring the reality of sin and God's justice?  And then came the avalanche.  Everywhere I turned, I bumped into someone talking about grace.  Isn't it incredible how he does this?  I was so hesitant to even start this blog, but I'm glad I did if for no other reason than I realize now I sense his presence the most when I am writing.  I can't even tell you how many places I've seen the word "transformation" since I started this.  Maybe that's just a buzz-word in Christian writing these days, but I never noticed it before.  In other words, God is real, y'all.

But back to the subject of too much grace, and going back to my previous post (His Likeness Shall See), one thing that seems clear to me is that it would be pretty difficult for us to show one another too much grace.  When there is a question of welcoming in a 'sinner' versus shunning them, I hope to choose welcoming every time.  In The Ragamuffin Gospel, the author describes an AA meeting where one man comes forward and admits to going on a drinking binge the week before after 7 years of sobriety.  The group empathizes with him, says "I've been there", loves him, encourages him, prays for him, and promises to walk alongside him in his journey back to sobriety.  It's a beautiful picture.  Isn't that what church should be?  Sinners Anonymous?  Yet we note that there is an acknowledgment, even if it is not spoken, that what he did is not okay.  They do not brush off the weight of his drinking binge or invite him to go out for a beer after the meeting.  I feel this tension in the church, and it's such a fine line.  I DO think that some go so far in grace that they celebrate the sin itself and I think that's a dangerous line to cross, but again I think for most of us, more grace is in order.

Then comes the mega-question that's been on my mind this week, and that is God's grace toward us.  We know that we are saved by grace alone and not by works.  Jesus, his life and death and resurrection and salvation, is a beautiful gift to us and nothing we could ever do here on Earth could earn us that.  We also know that Jesus calls us to die to ourselves, to be willing to abandon everything to follow him, to care for the needy and oppressed.  We know that James says that faith without works is dead.  DEAD.  So should we rest in grace alone, bathe in the knowledge that we are loved by God, carry on with life as it comes, and not feel burdened to do more?  Is this new "radical" movement that I have gotten so excited about just works in grace's clothing?  When I find myself at the end of the day disgusted with myself that I've done so much thinking and talking and so little doing, is that from God or is that from the enemy?    

I read a few things this morning, and I felt like God was giving me the answer to my question.  I think the answer is the Holy Spirit.  Jennie Allen has a great quote that says "Without the Spirit of God to lead our anythings- we will will only be do-gooders with our own agendas."  (Amen!)  This morning I read an article by Ed Cyzewski that said this:

"From where I sit, you can’t do anything radical as a follower of Jesus unless you get spiritual formation right. If you can’t follow the Spirit, you can’t follow Jesus.  The most radical thing you can do as a disciple of Jesus is to wait for an invisible Spirit to tell you what to do with your life. If you’re worried about whether you’re living a radical enough life, the good news is that God’s Spirit will walk with you step by step."

Then I read an interview with Shane Claiborne.  The whole thing is a fantastic read, but the first question out of the box is essentially how to be radical in the midst of ordinary life.   My favorite part of his answer is: "Choosing non-conformity doesn’t mean we’re all going to end up doing the same thing, that we’ll all find ourselves working in a soup kitchen, or sleeping under a bridge. This is an invitation—a call— to re-imagine who we are and how we are to live in light of Jesus. And I get excited because I see folks who are doing that everywhere, in all kinds of different ways."  I think when we are really tuned into his Spirit, when we earnestly seek him and offer him all of us, then we will know.  (This is no small thing, by the way, and something I think many Christians are missing - I certainly was and still struggle with it now.)  If we are unwilling to go there, only THEN are we resting on too much grace and not being radical enough.  If we have done those things and the answer doesn't involve a homeless ministry or adoption or donating your life savings to charity, then we can be assured that we are radically following him even when it feels like ordinary dishes-and-laundry life.  Such a life can still be used by God for extraordinary things, whether it's the impact you have on your family or your kids' friends or your co-workers.  All because of his grace to walk with us and to show us the magnificent plans he has for us.  Too much grace indeed.