Extending Grace
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Romans 3:23
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
1 John 1:8
I was in Academy the other day, looking for workout equipment that I could use at home. Their shelves were surprisingly void of weights and resistance bands. Disappointed, I turned to go when I heard a comment from a fellow customer in the same area, which I will not repeat out of decorum. She loudly expressed her dissatisfaction with the F word and the taking of the Lord’s name in vain. I cringed at hearing those, and while I longed to say something to her (which you and I both know I’m too chicken to do) or even stand there and shoot her dirty looks, I knew my better course of action would be say a prayer for her at the day she was having, as well as to pray for the store clerks as well as the young teenager she walked in with (in typical teenage fashion, he walked way ahead of her and didn’t seem to engage too much with her).
Her comment bothered and offended me, though. I’m not trying to come across as a Pollyanna Goody Two Shoes who never gets angry or curses, because that would be a misrepresentation of who I can be at times. But to hear a grown woman drop the F bomb and swear using the Lord’s name in a public store where children and families frequented was just too much.
I don’t watch a lot of the critically acclaimed and popular series on streaming services—I’ve never seen Game of Thrones, Orange is the New Black, Breaking Bad—mainly because of the subject matter, violence, and the cussing. (I’m not judging you if you watch them—I promise I am not)! I have watched a couple of episodes of a series I looked so forward to—Picard—only to be put off, to a small degree, by the F word peppered throughout some of the dialogue. I enjoy the intrigue and action of the latest Jack Ryan series on Amazon Prime, because a) it’s got John Krasinski and b) Jack Ryan’s character from The Hunt for Red October is one of my favorites. And yes, there is a lot of violence, given the backdrop of the storylines, and darn it, there is a tremendous amount of bad language in it.
Our mayor even used the Lord’s name in vain in an impassioned speech to the protesters the other night. I admit that I have heard words like that in casual conversation at work, and am surprised every time I hear it in an office environment.
Perhaps this is the norm and I’ve just been living in a naïve idealistic bubble. Perhaps everyone talks like this and television shows like Picard and Jack Ryan are merely portraying the reality of life that is different than the one I’m used to at my office.
Now again, I want to make sure I represent myself appropriately to my sisters and brothers. I have dropped the occasional F word here and there in moments of frustration or while watching the Dallas Cowboys (oh wait—those examples were redundant. Kidding…). I am a fan of the show Schitt’s Creek, and while its use has been infrequent, they have used the F word. My point is that I am not perfect and do not claim to be. I am a sinner.
If I, a sinner, am offended and dismayed by the degradation of civility by the common use of offensive language, can you imagine how our heavenly Father feels? I envision Him wincing the same way I did when I heard that lady in Academy every time His name is said in vain, but with even more sadness, pain, and disappointment, especially exacerbated when He hears that language from my lips.
But because of Christ’s atoning work at the cross, though I pain Him, I have every assurance of the love He has for me and the grace He has given me. Instead of living shackled by sin and dreading that every evil thought and bad word will pass from my lips, I have the presence of the Holy Spirit to convict me not to say them in the first place. I have His inspired Word that tells me to change the focus of my thoughts and direct them onto whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, if there is any excellence or anything worthy of praise. It also inspires me to, as Paul writes in Ephesians 4, to “put off my old self, which belongs to my former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of my mind, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
I am not a lost cause. When the Lord looks at me, He sees me as righteous, only because of Christ’s imparted righteousness. My Lord and Savior took the punishment for sins I would commit 2000+ years later, and I move in His incredible grace. Since I have been given grace, I must extend it to others, which is why I chose to pray for that woman in the Academy store instead of condemning her for her attitude and language.
May we always seek to have eyes that see others as God sees them.
Prayer Requests
· For us to love our neighbors as Jesus did, regardless of their race, sexual orientation, politics, or other dividing attribute
· For our nation to heal
· For our nation to turn to the Lord
· For us to share the love of Christ and the gospel message to a world in desperate need of it
I thank God for His love, grace, and that He brought us all together in service to His kingdom.
Quotes
“Never wish them pain. That’s not who you are. If they caused you pain, they must have pain inside. Wish them healing.”
“Followers of Jesus are on a straight and narrow road that offends many. Pleasing God separates you from this world.”
“When you finally learn that a person’s behavior has more to do with their own internal struggle than it ever did with you…you learn grace.”