Can I Hear An Amen?

I was touched by this article that appeared in the bulletin of the church that we used to attend in The Big City. Enjoy!

GRACE: SPACE TO FAIL

The other day I was listening to a Christian business leader talk about his highly successful company. He was explaining to a group of about two hundred interested people how he had built a small business into a large prosperous company.

We heard him say several of the things anyone would have expected. He talked about customer service, good value, and meeting market demands. One item of his company policy particularly riveted my attention.

As he talked about the way he treated his employees, he said, “I lavish grace on the people who work for me. That is, I give them space for failure as we seek to improve things in the company. Experience has taught me that removing a paralyzing fear of failure from them unleashes incredible creativity and productivity.”

This is the point about grace that so many of us have missed in our theology!

Grace is neither the abandonment of personal responsibility nor an anything-goes attitude toward faith. To the contrary, grace acknowledges that one is under God’s authority and answerable to the law of Christ. It insists on the relentless pursuit of truth, purity, duty, and ethical behavior in all parts of our lives. At the same time, however, it insists that one will not be saved by achieving these or feeling like we have spiritually “arrived”. Salvation is God’s gift to sinners, not His reward to those who do enough, as Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus declares:

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast. For we are His workmanship,created in Christ Jesus for good works, . . . (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Part of the good news of Christianity is that the grace of God gives us space to fail while we are seeking to bring our thoughts, words, and deeds into captivity for Christ. On the other hand, a performance-based religion always leaves one feeling insecure. Instead of reverence and love motivating one to greater acts of service, it is only a fear of hell. Churches filled with such people are overly cautious about everything and paralyzed in their creativity.

We must remember that God is the “Heavenly Father”, not Warden. He longs for the relationship shared to mirror that of a healthy family where the father loves and guides his children as they grow up. Those baptized into Christ have this relationship by virtue of birth—not just behavior. While we try to become more faithful sons and daughters, we can live lives filled with joy—even with our weaknesses and failures.

If you’re still living in a religion bounded by the fear of failure, lighten up. The Father loves you and wants what is best—even when you stumble.

--Adapted from an article by Rubel Shelly