No Hits~No Runs~But At Least One Error

I made a mistake yesterday.  It is not an 'every hour' occurrence, but it certainly is not a rare happening in my life.  I guess I could casually say, "Oh well, mistakes happen" and blow it off as just another event that has little significance in the larger flow of life.  But this one is different.

My mistake was magnified by my teaching.  Has that ever happened to you?  It is that old do as I say not as I do trick.  Don't you want your words to match up with your actions?  I do.  But this time I fell short.  I like to teach about the nature of grace.  I even like to live in the presence of grace.  In fact, I am dependant upon grace.  After all, if I only got what I deserved ... it would be a different issue.  But instead of getting exactly what I deserve, I am often overwhelmed by grace.

Here's the deal.  My mistake was to focus on law rather than on grace.  I often teach about the joy of erring on the side of grace.  But this time, I missed the mark.

First United Methodist Church in Oklahoma City sits within a block of the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building.  It was April 19, 1915.  A huge car bomb went off in front of the building.  Lives were lost and our nation was changed.

The church received a major part of the impact.  They rebuilt by taking the pieces of life and bringing them back together with grace.  The former stained glass of the church was gathered in shattered pieces and put back together to form a beautiful window of grace.  It says, "The Lord takes broken pieces and by his love makes us whole."

For me, that is a wonderful description of grace.

I missed the mark, fell short of the glory of God, allowed law to limit my thinking, and made an error by withholding grace.  It seems that no one really wins when law wins the day.  But everyone is blessed with grace prevails.