My wife gets me. She has this uncanny knack to get when I am all bummed out, when I am spent. Something about her question tonight made me think about it in a strange light.
We have a lot going on.
Most of the people don’t care about it, they only see their needs and I have found myself judging them because of their selfishness. I want to shout “It is not about you!” but then again, when I do that I often make it all about me.
There is the rub right? It isn’t about me.
I am humbled by other’s selfless Christianity. I am humbled by awareness of my pride and arrogance. It isn’t about me. It is all about Jesus. But I don’t always “feel” like I am living in God’s grace in this matter.
I love the ministry of the Word, I love the ministry of worship, I love the ministry of discipleship. Yet I work so hard on my own that I get wrapped up in my own feelings and concerns, my efforts are well intended but strip God from the worship He should be getting. Ugh. My self love and loathing rear’s its head.
So I learn. from mistakes maybe, but hopefully not as often.
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.
1 Corinthians 12:10
http://biblia.com/bible/esv/1Co15.10-11
The Apostle Paul had an issue with people being focused on who he was … it can be distracting. So when I fail to example God’s grace I need to be quicker to get things right, quicker to point back to God’s grace. At least I am not alone.
So what will you do with the knowledge of all this running through my head? Maybe it will be that people are real. People mess up. People need grace. Sometimes I need grace even more. Do you need grace?