Answered a question completely wrong...
A question to which I had the answer right in front of my face...!
A question... when answered incorrectly... could cause irreparable damage...
Yet for some reason... at the time... I chose to lean on my own understanding... rather than trust what was before me...
The first step in the challenge... of offering grace to difficult people... is to recognize our own deep need for grace... and our own capacity to cause difficulty in the life of others...
A grace story... gives a picture of how we are to accept... and deal with... grace...
When I was in seminary, one fellow who struggled with academics --- I mean really struggled --- was grateful just to get through school. I can still remember going to the mailroom where everybody got their tests back. ... He would quietly open his box, pull out his test booklet, and before he ever looked at his grade, he wrote in big bold letters across the front of the test "GRACE." If he did poorly: "Grace." If he did well: "Grace.!" If he passed, that was sufficient: "Grace!" I learned a valuable lesson from my friend. That's all any of us have to claim.
---Charles R. Swindol, The Grace Awakening
Today... writing GRACE across me... and hopefully everyone else who crosses my path...
...where sin increased,
grace abounded all the more...
Romans 5:20 ESV
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