A Month or Two of Grace

So about that whole having grace for other people thing.

I didn’t do it.

See, I’ve decided that the holiday season is the.worst.time. for. grace. Sacrilegious, I know.

People were cutting me off in traffic, cutting me off in conversation, and cutting me off in the line at Wal-Mart.

Oh, don’t get me started on Wal-Mart.

I told you not to.

Two days before Christmas, not one – but two – people cut right in front of me. I swear. They looked me in the eye and did it.

I was mad. And here’s where I tell you about the spiritual lesson I learned from it. How I forgave and had grace and smiled back at them.

Nope.

To be honest it still sends my blood pressure up when I think about it.

See, Grace doesn’t come naturally to me. But as I was thinking about it just now, these words came to my mind: while we were still sinners Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

God loved us when we were still cutting Him in line. While we looked Him in the eye and ignored the fact that He. Deserved. First. Place.

It makes me mad. Again.

Not with Him. But with myself. For my lack of grace. For the little things that get under my skin. For all the ways I look Him in the eye and choose myself first.

And it motivates me that maybe… just maybe… grace isn’t about me. It’s about Him. And when I choose to put others first, I’m choosing to put Him first.

And He deserves it a lot more than I do.

{So how were your two months of grace? For me, I’m hoping to pursue a lifetime.}

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Bekah Hamrick Martin is the editor of www.realteenfaith.com, and the author of The Bare Naked Truth About Waiting, to be released by Zondervan in spring 2013.