It is so true that, when we least expect it, God brings things our way
to teach us. Last Friday, I had a run-in with a boy in my class. He is
a Christian and is not afraid to let everyone know it. He can also be a
behavior problem at times. His attitude toward school and authority is
not what you would call good, and occasionally we will clash.
He
came into class griping about something, and was some what
disrespectful to the teacher I work with. After listening for a bit, I
had had enough. I said, "If you're going to act the way you do, and
have that kind of attitude, just stop calling yourself a Christian."
Last
night, God told me that I needed to apologize for my self righteous
arrogance. I came in this morning and called the student aside and
apologized to him. Somehow, in the middle of my apology, I got the
brilliant idea that this was an opportunity to teach this young man
about grace. Instead, he reached out his hand and said, "That's okay, I
know we all have problems and things God is working on us about. I know
I've got anger issues, and I'm trying to deal with it." Then he shook
my hand and went to class. Then God reached out and lightly smacked me
on the back of the head. I realized that I was the one who needed to
learn the lesson
about
grace. In effect, what the student had said to me is, "It's okay, we're
all broken in some way. But you're my brother so I love you".
That's
what God says to us. "I know you're not perfect, and you're going to
screw up. But you're my child and I love you". "My grace is big enough
to cover everything".
Because God has given us the gift of his
unending grace, we need to extend that same grace to those we come in
contact with. Because we're all broken and we all need grace, both from
God and from each other.
Comments (3)
wow, that's an awesome and humbling lesson. We need those, though it'd be nice if they stung a bit less.
Thanks for your encouraging note. It helped.
What a beautiful story; thanks so much for sharing this, and for showing me an example of grace through your actions. Just last night my small group found out that one of our members was back in jail on a parole violation involving drugs. We had to do some thinking and praying - and getting over the fact that at first we felt self-righteous and offended because we had helped her a lot financially. We soon realized that she's not the only broken one, all of us are. She just happens to also have to struggle with a powerful addiction that leads to harsh consequences. How often we think we're helping someone and find out that we were the ones who needed the lesson after all.
God's peace,
Anne
Wow, this weekend I went through almost an identical situation with one of the teens in the youth group that was providing a power struggle. Even knowing I should apologize I, at first, wanted to use the private apology as a space by which I could more thoroughly explain myself. When I saw how hurt he was and how resistant to the initial apology itself the time was turned into my being led to reaffirm that he is truly loved by me and moreso by God. The humiliation of being righteous rather than just right. I'd have acted like a fool if he'd masked his feelings just a little more.