Grace

Right now I'm reading What's So Amazing About Grace? by Philip Yancy. I could not have picked this book up at a more perfect time in my life. I thought this was good and had to post it:

Many years ago I was driven to the conclusion that the two major causes of most emotional problems among evangelical Christians are these: the failure to understand, receive, and live out God's unconditional grace and forgiveness; and the failure to give out that unconditional love, forgiveness, and grace to other people...We read, we hear, we believe a good theology of grace. But that's not the way we live. The good news of the Gospel of grace has not penetrated the level of our emotions.

In the opening of his book, Yancy shares a story from one of his friends that works with the destitute in the Chicago area. This friend was confronted by a homeless and sick prostitute who had no money to buy food for her two-year old daughter. This woman was in a wretched state and through sobs and tears related how she had been renting out her daughter to men for sex. She was making more money that way than prostituting herself. When he asked her if she'd ever thought about going to the church for some help, she looked at him with naive and raw shock and said "Church! Why would I ever go there? I was already feeling terrible about myself. They'd just make me feel worse."

I thought the prostitute's response was very revealing. Often the church is misunderstood by outsiders who think they have to have their "act together" before coming to church. And certainly not all churches lack grace...I have experienced grace time after time within the church. It seems so easy for us to accept the grace and forgiveness of the Gospel in our own lives; yet, when it comes to extending it to others (like the prostitute), we recoil in disgust and judgment. Our own Bible recounts story after story of Jesus hanging out with prostitutes and the worst of sinners, but so often we lack the same humility and grace as Christ. It is easy for me to forget it is ONLY by the grace of God that my life circumstances were different from the prostitute. Had things been different, I could have made the same horrible decisions in my own life. Oh, how I need to remember that truth on a daily basis!