Banging Our Heads Against Walls of Grace

My family has no grace.

I mean that in terms of coordination, of course. Kenna constantly runs into things and gets weird scrapes and bruises. Once, we were walking down the big aisle at Target, and she walked right into the endcap display- never saw it coming. Leslie is the most graceful but she gets lazy with it and cartwheels into stuff often. Kristin gets frustrated with me because I leave cabinet doors open, and they happen to be the perfect height for her head to smack squarely into. And my own random running into things is legendary in our church, known mostly as a "Thud, 'Ow!'"

All that to say, I know what I'm talking about when it comes to running into things. In the context of brokenness, I've been thinking a lot about why we should desire to be broken. Why should we want to be in pain, to hurt, to feel agonizing conviction (OK, sometimes its guilt)? I mean, people spend years and lots of money trying to get unbroken, but we Christians seem to constantly ask for brokenness. Are we stupid?

Yes. According to the rest of the world, anyway. 1 Corinthians 1: 18 says, "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." So, yeah, we're dumb. We're banging our heads against a wall, but as anyone whose ever had a blitzy TV set knows, if you hit it hard enough, it just might work, right?

So, what are we banging our head against, asking for brokenness? I'd argue grace. Not the coordination kind, either. I'm talking the "God loves me enough to see past my mistakes, and offer forgiveness for them," kind. It's a wall that we must get through, and what prevents us entering is pride- a hard heart. To enter this wall of grace, our pieces of us must be smashed to bits, small enough to enter. Grace is stronger than our sin, stronger than our rebellion, and yes, stronger than our pride. See 1 Corinthians 1: 25, "For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength." And yes, His Grace is part of His Strength.

Now, grace IS a free gift to us, be have become so hard hearted, that we must be broken to receive, we must be made low. How do we know we must be low, or be poor? Why, Matthew 5:3, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." And we know we can't enter heaven, but by grace.

God allows us to be broken, so we can receive and accept his offer, not just once, but daily. So, what this all has to do with my accident prone family is this- we need to run into grace, as often and as hard as we can, just like my family often runs into doors, couches, dogs and store displays. We should delight in our brokenness because it means we are being made by Christ open to grace, to new mercies.

Being broken isn't about feeling bad about yourself, it's about throwing yourself so hard into grace you can't hold yourself together.