A Gateway for Grace
I am not God. Though in times of extreme anger I may wish to have the almighty's smiting power, and in my moments of megalomania I might imagine myself to be divinely enlightened. In my brief fits of complete sanity, I know at the deepest level that I am not God, none of us are.
I am a Christian. I am instructed by my faith to follow the example of Jesus' life-giving love. I am offered the opportunity to enact his grace-filled teachings. I am forgiven despite the fact that I am constantly failing to either enact or follow the footsteps of Jesus.
My faith offers incredible paths of healing for mind, body, and soul. Though I have experienced that healing and long to offer it to the world, I am not the healer.
The words of Jesus reveal roads of reconciliation. They have quelled wars. They have united tribes, and they have restored shattered families. Though I have walked these well-worn ways of reconciliation in my own life, I am not the reconciler.
At the heart of my faith is full, vibrant life. It is the fullness that comes from whole relationships and access to deep spiritual wells. It is the brilliance that powers the sunsets and the lightning. Though I experience this full life more and more, I am not the giver of life.
The true mystery of Christianity "is that we have been chosen to make our own limited and conditional love the gateway for the unlimited and unconditional love of God." (Henri Nouwen In the Name of Jesus)
That is what I do. No, that is what I strive to do. No, that is what WE strive to do as Christians. We strive to prop open our own little gateways so that the love,healing, reconciliation, and full life can flow though them into the world.
Though we strive, it doesn't always work. Please excuse us when the little wood wedge slips and the gates close. Forgive us when we forget our place and try to hoard that which we are to give away.
Please don't attribute our faults to our God. Know that when we offer sickness instead of healing, brokenness instead of reconciliation, death instead of life, it is not coming from God, it's just a broken gate.
From AL.com
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