Choose Grace

I look at our troubled world and wonder: how did we come to be so narrow-minded and merciless?  So, consumed with protecting ourselves and our own that we ignore all too easily the cry of the one in need?

Our world—we—have enough resources to give every child born into this world sufficient water, food, clothing, shelter, health services, education.  A chance to play, to dream. A time to discern their gifts and use them to make a difference in this world.

Yet, our world—we—choose “us” over “them”; “mine” over “yours”.  We let fear drive us to protect ourselves and consume more and more, even at the expense of others.  We put positive and negative values on color of skin, language, ethnicity, different cultures. We then use these to create enemies and divisions—“others”—whom we believe we need not just fear but hate, and therefore we can belittle them, condemn them, push them out of our lives, even kill them.

We revel in the beauty of nature in our world, taking elegant vacations to see and absorb some of that beauty.  We wonder at the immensity of the universe and the awesome discoveries of science and medicine. Yet, we put short-term profit as a higher priority than the care of the more disadvantaged and care for the earth itself.

We rely on the labor of so many unnamed workers who work often in underpaid jobs and unhealthy environments but do not stand in solidarity with them when their voice is raised in protest.

We pursue beauty and beautiful things and yet too often miss the beauty of every human person.

We are enchanted by the birth of a new-born child but just as easily discard the child that is not wanted or unexpected.

And yet…

I know that there are threads of grace at work, always and everywhere, weaving this history of human longing and love, human cruelty and mistakes, human genius and ignorance—weaving them together in a way that can offer the world hope and salvation, even in the most seemingly barren or destitute of times.

For God chose wondrously, profligately, surprisingly, undeservedly to entangle Godself into human history irrevocably.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory.

So, with eyes wide open and a heart that grieves at the cruelty and selfishness and inhumanity in myself and this world, I choose to look for those threads of grace in this new year.  Let’s journey together in hope, in setting aside fear, in letting go of our need to define the world as “us” vs. “them”.  Let us find those threads of grace and be those threads of grace in this coming year.

God risks God’s all in claiming human history as God’s own history of salvation. In this new year let us risk a little more of ourselves—and maybe a great deal more—to show forth that goodness and glory of God.  Let us choose grace, in ourselves, in others, in this world, and embrace the changes that will entail in our lives.  None of us can do it alone.  But together, what would life look like for us, if we consistently chose grace?