Gracious Living

The Christian message flies in the face of conventional wisdom. It is centered on an idea of grace that, as Bono put it, ‘travels outside of karma.’

Forgive others as Christ forgave you. This is the command that we are given. However, we often decide this road is too difficult. We settle for a road that is much more wise and safe and intuitive.

Something hit me tonight about living out the gospel of grace. Living graciously means expecting others to fail and resolving to handle them graciously and lovingly when they do, rather than with judgment. It would be revolutionary if people really lived this way.

When someone says something hurtful to us, we should have expected that this would happen and resolved to be humble and gracious, responding without judgment. When the same person does it again, we should respond in precisely the same way. When we are undermined, slighted, misunderstood, laughed at, ignored, and mocked, we should not be greatly surprised. We should respond graciously and without judgment.

Common sense tells us this is a stupid way to live. This is why no one (not even most Christians) actually lives this stuff out. It means we get taken advantage of. Common sense says if someone hurts you, you must keep them at arm’s length. It is unwise not to protect yourself. Human reason tells us that if a woman cheats you, do not trust her. It is foolish to be cheated again. It is foolish to become a doormat for others.

If you lived this way, you would get taken advantage of. That is for sure. Then again, this is exactly the way that God forgives and moves toward us graciously. God expects that we will fail and He resolves to move toward us graciously when we do. To live out the gracious gospel, we must resolve to do the same. It is unsafe. It means we will be taken advantage of.

The world would be revolutionized if we actually lived this way. We must expect others to fail, to disrespect us, to slight us, to hurt our pride, to misunderstand us, to cheat us, and to otherwise wrong us. We must repent of our constant need to vindicate ourselves and make ourselves appear great, and resolve to graciously move toward people who will fail us.

This is living graciously. This is forgiving as we have been forgiven.