today i was going through some of my essays i wrote in my advance composition class... and i really like this one and it reminded me of God's glorious and wonderful God's grace is!
What is grace? Grace means a couple things to me: something almost unexplainable, a door to which we have access through Christ, and a gift from God. Its something I will never be able to grasp the full meaning of until I meet Jesus in heaven. It's something that defines why I am able to respond to a holy God, why I feel at peace with myself, my surroundings, and others, and most importantly it's why my heart is able to love. Now to some people that might sound like bogus and a whole bunch of gibberish. To me its something I hold onto and cherish. The most important thing to understand about grace is that it's a gift, not an earned present.
Recently I've been literally going nuts on the concept of Grace. It's something that has changed my view on everything, changed my heart, changed my thinking, and is really changing my whole relationship with Christ. It's turning things upside down and bringing me closer to the one I love the most. Grace is given for a lot of reasons and the biggest is because we are sinners and are saved by GRACE. It's all because I've realized I'm a ragamuffin. One might ask what's a Ragamuffin? A ragamuffin is not someone who is not for muscular Christians who have made chuck Norris there hero. It is not hooded mystics who want magic in their religion. Its not alleluia Christians who live only on mountaintops and have never visited the valley of desolation. Its not people who are fearless and tear less. It's not for people who claim "all these commandments I have kept from all my youth." its not for legalists who would rather surrender control of their souls to rules then run the risk of living in union with Christ. The gospel of grace (gospels in the bible, and even the bible as a whole) was written for ragamuffins. It's for the bedraggled, beat up and burnt out people who don't know what they are doing in life. It's for people who feel so burdened that they feel like their heart is sinking to the depths of the ocean. It's for people who are wobbly and weak—kneed who know they don't have it all together and are too proud to accept the hand out of God's amazing grace. It's for the inconsistent people, who are unsteady disciples. It's for the poor, the weak, sinful men and women. It's for people who have no hope. It's for the bent and bruised who feel that their lives are a grave of disappointment to God. It's for smart people who know they are being dumb with their lives. It's for anyone who is willing to look beyond themselves.
The gospel of grace nullifies our adulation of televangelist's charismatic superstars, and local church heroes. It obliterates the two class citizenship theory operative in many American churches today. Grace proclaims the awesome truth that all is gift. Crazy isn't it? That all is gift. All that is good is ours, not because it's a right, but because of the sheer bounty of a gracious God. While there's a lot of things that we can earn, like our degrees, money so we can go waste it on the newest I-pod, our home and garden, and even a good nights sleep, all of this is possible only because we have been given so much. We have been given a mouth to speak out of, a mind to think up ideas and share them with others, feet to walk and feel the earth, hands to comfort others, a heart to beat with love, eyes to see the beautiful earth the lord has created, and much more! To a believer (and to anyone who wants to come along for the invitation: think about this) who is even seeking this idea of grace: god is in our souls and Jesus is in our flesh! Because of Jesus we have the power to believe where others deny, hoping when theirs despair, to love when others hurt. All of this is a gift from above. Its not because I've earned a good education at Foothill High school, because I've kissed my mom or dad goodnight, said a thousand prayers to God in one day, or even because I smiled at a lonely stranger. Our being is even a gift of God. I am confident that I am deeply loved by Jesus Christ and that I have done nothing to earn or deserve the love of Christ. This is called Grace. It's not only for people who love the lord, but it's already been given to all.
Lets look a little closer at what the Meriam Webster Dictionary says about Grace. Meriam says grace is charm, thanks, pleasing, grateful, a virtue coming from God, a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine grace, approval, favor, a special favor, privilege, his place by right, a short prayer at meal time asking for a blessing or giving thanks, beauty, and much more. Now I guess all of these things can go under the topic of grace, but it doesn't fully capture what Grace is. Grace can never fully be captured because our minds are so finite. When I asked my classmates what Grace meant their responses were a ballerina when she's moving, someone helping another, Mother Teresa, a prayer catholic people say, and something people strive for. At that moment, I knew I had to write this essay to define what it meant to me. It's something that is so important to me and something I can't even fully grasp. But its because of grace I have been saved. It's because of God's grace I have been blessed with so many things, with life it's self. Its because of his grace I am able to share the love of Christ. If any Ragamuffin wants to take one thing from this essay, all I ask is that you understand that grace is a wonderful GIFT from God and there is nothing, nothing that you can do to deserve it.
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