Grace is one of those words that we hear so often within churchy contexts that after a while we forget what the concept really means. When you basically had zero days of life spent outside of church, you become familiar with the buzz words. Grace. Hope. Faith. Love. It all just kind of goes together in a nice, wrapped up little bubble. So we come up with catchy things to help us remember & explain them to others in our “witnessing”. Here are a few for grace. Maybe you’ve heard them.

G.R.A.C.E.: God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense

This one is pretty self-explanatory. We get God’s riches (heaven, blessings, enter your own reward here) at Christ’s expense of dying on the cross. Our reward for his sacrifice.

Mercy: Not getting what you deserve.
Grace: Getting what you don’t deserve.

Outside of Uncle Jesse making “Have Mercy” the thing we most associate with the word (and also very confusing for us teen Christian girls) I’d only really heard the word mercy in movies when someone was about to be punished for whatever they’d been caught doing. “Have mercy on me!” really meant “please don't torture me in this deserted warehouse”...or similar scenario. So this parallel made sense to me. If mercy meant not getting what we did deserve for being bad, grace was getting what we didn’t deserve. Like not eating your vegetables and getting ice cream anyway. (Which happened to me once and I still recount as one of the greatest wins of my life.)

Grace = the prayer before a meal.

Because it’s supposed to remind us that grace is a blessing? This term for a pre-meal prayer was also confusing to me. Here’s the blessing of cooked carrots. I can’t help you here.

But what if grace is about more than blessings? Or rewards? What if it’s not just a bonus nicety that we get as a perk to following Jesus? I came upon 2 new definitions of grace recently that flipped the script for me.

N.T. Wright said that grace is “God acting in my life to do what I cannot do.” Ok. That’s about much more than getting a gift when it’s not my birthday. I need God to help me do lots of stuff. Answer hard faith questions in small group, the ones that, when asked, everyone else slowly sits back and looks at me to see how the heck I’m gonna answer that one. I need God to parent appropriately when I’m exhausted and out of patience, especially when my kids aren’t the ones who have drained my patience but end up being the ones left with an empty mama. I need God to be kind to people who drive me nutso. To not cuss people out when I’m driving. (Ok, fine, sometimes not even God can help me not do that.) But this grace is a much more broad concept.

Then I read this one which I love even more. “Grace is the bridge that connects the ordinary and the impossible.” Yes! I am for sure ordinary. (Ok again, I’m extra. But you know what I mean.) But I want to do impossible things! I want to speak. I want to teach. I want to represent Jesus. I want to connect with all kinds of women from all kinds of backgrounds in all kinds of places. I want to point people to Jesus and have a big party in heaven when I realize the impact I was permitted to have. Not to celebrate in my own glory but because I want everyone I love to live their most amazing life with Jesus and if I can play even the smallest part of making heaven a collection of all of my favorite people then give me the words, God, because I’m gong after all of them. That is definitely something that I not only need God to do (because I cannot) but it is also seemingly impossible.

Great!

I finally understand what Paul was saying when he was all braggy about his shortcomings.

Now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 NLT

I’m not about to blast my sins all over social media but if boasting about my weaknesses allows me to highlight God’s perfection (and kindness in actually choosing me) then I’m here for it. I get it. I’m not sure I’m ready to call it pleasure yet because that ish is hard but I’ll be first in line for the “I’m not good enough but lemme show you how God is” department.

Grace allows us to do everything if we get out of the way and let God move through us. You can love your spouse, who you barely even like right now. You can be a safe place for your kids who are trying to figure themselves out in a way that makes you feel like you don’t even know who they are anymore. You can bravely step out into community instead of hiding at home where it’s easier to not have to perform or pretend. You can face your feelings instead of shoving them down and pretending they aren’t there. Please note that none of these are commandment breakers or “sinful things.” They’re just life. and they’re hard. Impossible to do of our own strength but more than possible when we make room for an extraordinary God to pour His grace into and through us.

Grace. It’s not just for sinners anymore.