True story: About 25 years ago one of the other churches in town was having parking problems. They only had off street parking and there just was not enough spaces for the number of cars people drove. So, the pastor went next door to visit the manager of a small factory which had a parking lot for employees adjacent to the church. The factory was closed on Sundays so he asked if the church attendees could park there on Sunday mornings. The manager was more than pleased to share the gravel parking lot with church members.
Several years later there was a heavy snow on a Saturday night. The parking lot had deep snow drifts and was not plowed out by Sunday morning. One of the church members contacted the factory manager and scolded him soundly for not plowing out the lot for the church people. By the following Sunday there was a locked fence around the parking lot. There was no intervention the pastor could do that could undo the damage done by that one inconsiderate church member.
Sometimes we forget that what we are enjoying today does not really belong to us. Could it be that if we abuse the gift of grace given by God that we could find ourselves locked out of that grace?
Tags: grace, parking, thankful
I went to the county jail yesterday to visit a young lady incarcerated for selling drugs to an undercover officer. I expected to deal with a con artist, someone who knew how to fool everyone else because she herself was fooled. But I was surprised at her openness in admitting that she made bad choices and now had to make it right.
I asked her how she thought God felt about her right now. In shame she said that He was probably mad at her right now. That gave me an opportunity to talk about how God loves her unconditionally and that she was beating up on herself because she was using her own failure as the standard of forgiveness, rather than what Jesus did for her on the cross. We prayed a prayer of rededication and I expect God to begin revealing Himself to her daily.
But, most of all, the experience taught me a valuable lesson on thanksgiving. As I talked to her my mind went back to some of my own stupid and irresponsible choices I made years ago. But for the grace of God, I would be the one sitting there in that cold jail cell. I left the jail with a deeper appreciation of the Lord’s grace in my life. That’s what I’m thankful for!
Tags: choices, grace, jail, thankful