Pursuing Grace

“Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 9, verses 7 through 8.

The sign read “In all things at all times”. Hanging proudly over the entrance to our locker rooms, this sign reminded us on a daily basis the importance of offering everything to God, not out of guilt or compulsion, but out of love and desire. Which is a strange sign for a football team, or any sports team for that matter. There’s a negative stereotype applied to sports, that truly great teams yell and scream at each other, forcing players to give their best, instead of inviting and encouraging each other to willingly give. This mentality of giving applied to everything: getting to and from practice, practice itself, helping struggling teammates outside of practice, game days, and everything in between. The truth of what Paul wrote is that when we willingly give of ourselves we establish a community, not just a group of people who do similar things and have similar passions. No, in Paul’s worldview it’s not just about similarities and proximities, it’s about choosing to engage with the fullness of our hearts. That’s what grace is all about, fully and joyfully engaging: no law can create such grace.

The secret of grace is that it’s an invitation, not a compulsion. You can’t force someone to connect, but you can model connection and invite people to participate. Recently I’ve been a part of a group that’s tried enforcing loyalty through stricter rules. The enforcement of rules without investigation, without a compassionate hand leads to one thing: burnout. It’s tantamount to the idea that if we just worked harder life would be better. In other words, fall in line and do your part, as I think you should, and everything will be okay. The problem with this thinking is that it doesn’t engage at a personal level. Living and breathing people become cogs in a machine, a machine turned by someone else’s hand. The cogs in this machine lose their identity because they are reduced to their functions. There’s nothing more damning than losing your identity and following someone else’s rules. This machine mentality doesn’t create life, it destroys life.

I’ll never forget visiting Sachsenhausen concentration camp. This artistically designed horror is a place Hitler put many of his political prisoners and people he wanted removed. I say artistically designed, because Hitler designed the camp himself. He designed it to manipulate, control and to strip people of their identities. The first sign prisoners read entering the camp read “Arbeit Macht Frei”. In other words they were told if they just worked hard enough they could get out of the hell Hitler created. The sign was a lie, there was no freedom to be found in Sachsenhausen. The only way out was through an incinerator, but the idea of freedom was used to get the prisoners to work themselves to death. Next to the camp were factories. The prisoners literally worked to death fueling Hitler’s war. They made shoes, blankets and other textiles, with purposefully impossible KPI’s, so every month prisoners would be punished, even though there was a promise of reward. Prisoners were given uniform clothes, had their heads shaved and starved. The result was an emaciated look, even rendering the differences between genders difficult to see. Every part of the camp was watched, and visible from a central tower with the sign, “Arbeit Macht Frei”. It wasn’t enough to starve and overwork, prisoners had to know they were being watched at every point and judged constantly. Hitler purposefully created a hell on earth, staring into that hell reminds us what true life is all about and how to avoid machine-like thinking and destructive ways of life.

Hitler’s camp represents oppressive and fear-driven thinking, it is the complete opposite and enemy of living by grace. When I remind myself of the evil I saw in Sachsenhausen, I am reminded that pieces of the camp’s mentality and way of life are still present in the world today. Sachsenhausen is a concentration of evil, it models everything wrong: from reasons for work, to lack of identity, to forced oppression, to false rewards and constant judging supervision. It’s the opposite of joyfully giving, giving because you want to, giving as its own reward, giving of the uniqueness of self and being encouraged by leaders. There is a reason Paul writes so freely about grace and giving, once upon a time he lived under the oppression of law. He was once a destructive teacher: he constantly watched, set impossibly high standards, and punished those who didn’t live up to his expectations. Paul gave up the false man-made law when confronted by Christ, and incredibly became a messenger of grace. If the hardest of hearts can be changed, then any heart is capable of change.

What many people find difficult about the Christian life is that they don’t understand grace. Many give grace lip service, and mention it every now and again, but they don’t model it. They still try to live and lead through destructive thinking. True grace is patient and endures all kinds of mistakes, but it cannot be enforced; it has to be freely given. That’s the hardest part about teaching grace. It can’t be forced on people. It runs completely counter to other ways of motivating, it says, “If you don’t want to come with me I can’t make you”. It creates the option of freedom even though there is a strong desire to have others follow. Grace invites, “Come with me, willingly choose to make this your way of life. Come share in abundance.” Grace doesn’t create guilt. Grace doesn’t create shame. Grace forgives, restores and supplies the energy to live abundantly. I choose grace, because grace chose me.

As for practical living, I recognize my grace can only go so far. I need to be refreshed and reminded about God’s grace, I need to keep taking it in or else I will run out of grace. I also recognize that as grace is a choice, there must be the freedom to decline grace and its way of life. Grace reminds me not to be critical of others, to look for the hurt in someone’s life instead of strictly judging them on actions alone. Grace cannot be enforced, even though I sometimes wish it could. Man-made laws are about forcing people to do what’s right, instead of creating an atmosphere where people willingly do what’s right. Some choose law’s made by men, instead of the Law of God. God’s Law is built on grace, it has standards and outlines and defines sin, but it also recognizes that no person without the grace of God can live up to God’s standards. God’s Law recognizes our shortcomings and constantly invites us to walk deeper in grace. It is not enough to claim grace but never follow God by making it an active part of your life. We simply cannot stay as we are, for if we do we reject the grace of God because it is by his grace we are forgiven, restored, and able to live a life of grace.