Sharing the Grace

I love to share good news with people.  When our teams at Tarleton win, it’s fun to write the articles. When the student-athletes are honored for their efforts on and off the field, it’s exciting to tell of their awards. When my wife and I found out we were pregnant, we were busting at the seams to tell our family.  We had good news, and we wanted to shout it from the rooftops so everyone would know.

It’s amazing how we are so comfortable with spreading our good news around to all those in which we come into contact whether we know them or not, but why is it so hard to share the Good News?

God’s grace is a gift.  And usually, we forget to pass it on to others.His grace is big enough for everyone.  It is not limited to any one person, but it is open for all.  Jesus healed the blind, lame and deaf.  He ate with the sinners, talked with the prostitutes and interacted with thieves. 

It is our faith that limits God’s grace, not God Himself.  How big is your faith in the God who heals and forgives?  Is our view of God’s grace limited by our view of God? God is not just for Americans or certain Christians or certain races – God is much bigger than that.  He is in every breath I take. He is in every person I encounter.  He is in every event.  Whether I see Him in those people/events or not reflects my view of God. I don’t fully understand God’s grace.  I sometimes pray for friends and family members to be healed of physical ailments, but sometimes, they die.  I sometimes pray for friends/family who are suffering, yet many times, their suffering continues or worsens.  Sometimes it seems as if good people suffer and rotten people prevail.  Obviously, God’s grace has nothing to do with my will, but His alone. 


To accept God’s grace is to surrender my will and everything else I have to His purpose.  His control.  His direction.  His result.  God’s grace is omnipresent – just like God Himself.  His grace renews us. It is offered to all, but do we extend His grace to others? Do we share His Good News?

Casting Crowns has a song entitled “Does Anybody Hear Her” which describes a young lady who is troubled and looking for something or someone to fill a void in her life.  After making bad decisions, the music video shows her watching a group of Christians enjoying themselves on the way to a worship service.  She decides to pull into the parking lot.  As she gets out of her vehicle, a lady walks by and gives her a judgmental look.  She almost gets back in her car, but decides to go ahead to the door.  As she nears the door, the same group that walked in front of her on the crosswalk walks right past her.  Some of them even look at her, but none of them invite her in.  She leaves wondering why they didn’t speak to her or invite her in if they were supposed to have it all “figured out” as Christians.  Later, she sees the group at the diner where she works.  As they leave, they place a card alongside the tip that says something like “experience Eternal Life”.  Knowing that they “talked the talk,” but did not “walk the walk,” she crumpled the card without continuing to read its message.  She was denied the opportunity to understand the grace of God because those individuals did not take the time to teach Jesus.  Then, one of the girls returned for her purse and notices the girl crying and troubled, and sits down and talks with her.

The song starts with the words, “She is running, a hundred miles an hour in the wrong direction. She is trying but the canyon’s ever widening in the depths of her cold heart. She sets out on another misadventure just to find she’s another two years older and she’s three more steps behind.”

Do we know anyone like that? I am sure the answer for all of us is a resounding “YES!” But what have we done to help them? Have we extended the grace of Jesus to them?  Or do we fit into the chorus of the song:
“Does anybody hear her? Can anybody see?  Or does anybody even know she’s going down today
Under the shadow of our steeple with all the lost and lonely people
Searching for the hope that’s tucked away in you and me?
Does anybody hear her? Can anybody see?”

Who is around us that we are denying the chance to know God’s grace? And if we are knowingly denying them the opportunity to know God and His mercy – are we not in fact denying God?  Are we ourselves denying God’s grace by not sharing?

I pray we look past people’s appearance.  I hope we come down from our lofty positions we have placed ourselves upon.  I plead for us to look around us – “under our steeple” – to find the people who need God.  Those who need a Savior.  Those who are looking to fill a void.  Because you and I both know that the only one who can fill the void is God Himself.  Let’s share that message – the Good News – so they, too, can find God’s grace and mercy at the foot of the cross.

Father God, help us to spread the story of your grace to those around us.  Help us to reach out to those who are searching. Help us to show people the cross which bridges one side of the void to the other.  Help us to be people who are active in teaching the Good News – not just with our words, but with our actions. Father, let us reflect Your Spirit in our everyday lives.  Amen.

Joey Roberts

Stephenville, Texas