On Grace
I was moved deeply at a recent meeting with our student leaders. Through the night we celebrated God's work on campus and opened discussion about how to care for each other in ministry and invite God to increase our witness on campus. Our plan as staff was to encourage the leaders to step out despite the limitations that they place on themselves, to operate in the liberty of Jesus' love.
My fellow staffworker Eleanor invited our students to participate in a visualization exercise to close a meeting, and it went something like this:
Close your eyes. Imagine all the people you know, all the people you've ever known, standing in a circle around you. Picture your family, your neighbors as a child, your elementary school classmates, teachers, friends, past boyfriends and girlfriends, the bus driver, and the homeless man on the street. Watch them walk away, one by one. They all leave until only Jesus remains. He says to you,
My fellow staffworker Eleanor invited our students to participate in a visualization exercise to close a meeting, and it went something like this:
Close your eyes. Imagine all the people you know, all the people you've ever known, standing in a circle around you. Picture your family, your neighbors as a child, your elementary school classmates, teachers, friends, past boyfriends and girlfriends, the bus driver, and the homeless man on the street. Watch them walk away, one by one. They all leave until only Jesus remains. He says to you,
"Does no one condemn you? Neither do I. Go and sin no more."
The question for us: How do I respond?
I realized letting go of condemnation is not easy. This aspect of grace, as our tradition names it, grates against the retributive justice (some call it "fairness") that our culture is so keen on. One student replied to the exercise, "I realize I never see the world with rose-colored eyes. I see it with blood red eyes, so scared for what it's becoming. It's hard for me to really believe Jesus doesn't condemn me."
What a place for God to touch! Such is the bottom, the vast chasm of doubt and uncertainty that only God can reach with his hands of infinite healing. Down there is all our insecurity that stirs up when we are faced with all those people that ring a circle around us, all those reasons that we wish we could do it all over again.
What a place for God to touch! Such is the bottom, the vast chasm of doubt and uncertainty that only God can reach with his hands of infinite healing. Down there is all our insecurity that stirs up when we are faced with all those people that ring a circle around us, all those reasons that we wish we could do it all over again.
No, Jesus knows we are His, and loves us simply for who we are. Better yet, he loves us for who we really are. This grace gives us room to move into his arms, instead of letting us run away in shame. He calls us beautiful. I see that every time I go on campus, as I glance around at faces that probably don't know it.
I need to be reminded of that every day.
I need to be reminded of that every day.
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