God knows we need him, and yet our sin separates us from him. The discerning among us know that we need him and that our sin has separated us from him. Many who have such insight, in response, ache to be holy, righteous, in order to correspond to the God who is life. So they can be near him and breathe in what he is and live. Toil and struggle to align themselves with the holy God becomes the religious quest of such folk, but there are dangers lurking for such valiant efforts...
Glad of God, but disappointed with self, melancholy shadows their days. Grace, to them, is that God doesn't give them what they deserve. They do get to experience God, but with their heads hanging down, their own feet filling their view. But what about grace should be about us? Grace is not obsessed with our unworthiness nor our inabilities. Grace is about God, about his kindness, his love, his desire to share himself with all he has made.
Grace is entire in its grant of acceptance. There are no ifs, ands, or buts. Grace starts out with everything being right, and then works backwards. It leaves the subject peaceful, not striving, and never uncertain. Grace moves us to a place with God and a peace with him. Too much for our comprehension, our thinking often has to run after to catch up to grace.
Thankfully, grace has long arms and strong hands.
Grace is amazing because it elevates us to mountaintops we could never climb ourselves. Grace is not crampons, or oxygen tanks, nor downy jackets that aid us in achieving what we could never achieve on our own. Grace is a helicopter ride to the top. It brings us near God without self-consciousness of effort. We're not the issue, nor is our incapability of the climb. Grace is about the heart of God and how genuinely he wants us up there with him.
And the view up there standing beside him, his hand on our shoulder... it's spectacular!
