Friday Favorites: Grace (Part 1)

Hello all. It has been an busy week. The hubby has been working strange hours and I started my new job as Clinical Records Coordinator at a counseling office, so we haven't seen each other as much as usual, but such is life. We had the opportunity to lead worship at church last week and will do so again this Sunday. It is something we truly love doing and the Lord really blesses us and teaches us a lot through it (even when microphones malfunction and technical difficulties ensue!). God has been so good to us, and this is a truth that washes over me every single time I worship. In fact, when Joel and I are leading together, there are times when I will glance over at him and remember all we've been through and  be completely overcome by how big and how good and how gracious God is to us.

There's a running joke among some of our family members that Joel and I are overly attached to grace...that we talk about it ALL THE TIME, that we elevate grace to its own level, that even the word grace has a special meaning to us. Hubby often tells people about how one of our sisters once asked him if we were going to name all of our daughters Grace or just one. She wasn't too far off. GRACE, for us, is the most definitive aspect of who we are, as individuals, as a married couple, as Christians, as inhabitants of this earth. It is the foundation of the most meaningful relationships we have...with our family members, with each other, with our Savior.

Some would say that we emphasize grace over other important aspects of being a Christian...over love, or joy, or obedience. That's probably accurate, at least if one is referring to what we talk about most or what holds the most passion in our hearts. Joel likes to say that we begin and end with grace. It is the default that we fall back on in every situation, because it is the reason we're even here, both literally and figuratively. Without grace, we would not be saved, we would not be here in Willoughby, we would not be the Wisleys, we would likely not even be alive. Grace has brought us to this point; it will carry us to the end.

As a child in Christian school and Sunday school, I learned that typical grace definition fairly quickly. What is grace? the teacher would ask. Undeserved favor! we'd all shout. When I think about that definition now, all that comes to mind is, What a boring and incomplete way to describe what Jesus does for us! Undeserved favor...that's like what the naughty kid at the birthday party gets when he waits in line for his goody bag with all the other kids. The parent handing out the treat bag isn't thinking, You get this treat bag because I love you...no, he's thinking, thank goodness this party's over; now take this bag full of candy and Dollar Tree junk and go torture your own parents. Grace is SO much more than undeserved favor.

First of all, undeserved implies that one did nothing to earn it. This just doesn't even begin to tell the whole story. It's not that we are undeserving; it's that we are hell-deserving. It's not just that we didn't do anything to earn it; it's that we did everything in our power to go against it. We literally spit in the face of our holy Creator who offered us eternal life and we do it again every day when we choose sin over His way. That's a little more offensive than just undeserving. And favor? Well, favor is just so mild and dull sounding. In fact, every time I hear it, I think of twelve old men sitting around a conference table, with someone saying in a tired voice, All in favor, say, "Aye"....Aye, they all respond. Yeah, favor doesn't really cover what Jesus did for us either. Insanely crazy forgiveness? Inconceivable, awe-inspiring sacrifice? Senseless, scandalous, wrath-satisfying, ransoming, all-consuming, atoning forever LOVE? Well, that's getting a little closer.

Can we throw that definition out? Across the world, there are millions of kids chanting: Grace is unmerited favor... instead of understanding the whole truth: that this huge, perfect, HOLY God has done for them what they are utterly incapable of doing for themselves. He has reversed the sentence, absorbed the punishment, set us free, and adopted us as his forever. If you want a shorter definition, look no further than Romans 5:8: While we were STILL SINNERS, Christ died for us.  He didn't die looking to who we might become in him...he died knowing our entire identity was still wrapped up in being an enemy of God, a hater of righteousness...murderers, thieves, prostitutes, gluttons, adulterers, cheaters, liars. When we were at our very worst...that's when he died.

Maybe you're reading this and you're thinking, she's a bit extreme...she probably hasn't committed all those sins. She seems like a good person. I will say a few things in response to that. 1) I am extreme. Extreme salvation from extreme sin and ugliness produces extreme thinking. 2) In some way or another, I can assure you, I've committed all those sins and more. And 3) If you're thinking I'm a good person, you're not my husband or my mother (two people who have DEFINITELY seen me at my worst), and you don't know me very well. On my own, I am wretched and wrecked. You see, you might notice my smile or little acts of kindnesses I do and conclude that I am good, but you don't see my darkest thoughts or the ugliest parts of my heart. Even my husband doesn't see those. Those are pieces of myself I keep hidden far from sight, so that no one will know. But Someone does. And here's the crazy part...He chose me and loves me anyway.

Here's where it gets even crazier. I'm not just one of those people that has little sins hidden away on the inside. There are also a lot of sins...big ones, BAD ones, by the world's standards...that I've committed openly, willingly, repeatedly. Thankfully, because of Jesus, those days are behind me and I pray they will be forever. But I'm not a good person by anyone's standards. My record's got a lot of red in it...if you look at it through the lens of the world's memory. When Jesus looks at it, though, it's clean and pure and perfect. Because my record has been replaced by His.

But I'll always know how the record used to read. Don't misunderstand me here; I know it, but I don't dwell on it, or beat myself up over it, or identify myself as guilty. That is NOT what Jesus wants. But I never forget. I will never deny how far I fell before Jesus pulled me up out of the sludge and grime and ashes to make me clean. I will never ignore how close I came to falling off the edge of that slippery slope once it became a cliff. Neither will my husband. You see, if we fail to remember the magnitude of what Christ did for us when he died in our place on that cross, we miss out on understanding the truth about His grace...how it is much bigger and stronger and more loving and far-reaching than we could ever imagine. That's why grace means so much to us...because we know the unfathomable magnitude of grace needed to save us. We ran as far and as hard from His plan as we could. And STILL....He pursued us and saved us.

 If someone falls down and you help them stand back up, they are thankful. But what if someone else jumps headfirst into a deep pit that is filled with vipers and poisonous snakes, and they are bitten repeatedly until they know they are going to die? What if they can't even see the top of the pit anymore because it's so dark, and they can't fathom ever coming out alive....what if you jump in after that person, and rescue him and take his place among the snakes? What if before you get him out, you give them the antidote that will counteract the venom in his veins, and give him the chance to live life as one who has been pulled out the pit and healed? Which man will love you more? The one you pulled up after a stumble to the ground? Or the one who was lost and hopeless and dying in a dark, poisonous pit until you found him and gave him hope and a new life?

Joel and I were in our own snake pits, and not just once either. Jesus met us where we were and rescued us. He forgave us for how we had disobeyed and defied Him time and again. He gave us new names and a new story. He showed us how to forgive each other and see each other as who we are in Him. He wiped our records clean and healed the wounds we had inflicted on ourselves over a lifetime of choosing our ways over His. Some of the scars from that old life remain. But even those are redeemed. They are precious reminders of the place He found us and how far He carried us into freedom. Scars don't have to be ugly...they can be beautiful...like those made by nail holes in the hands of the One who  extended us grace and rescued us from the pit.

We are obsessed with grace. But if you've been trapped in a pit like we were, you know why. We were lost, we were blind...we were dead. But Jesus found us, and gave us our sight...and raised us to new life. And we'll never be able to stop obsessing over it.

Until next time,
Chels