Grace Is For Sinners

This morning I've been enjoying the quiet of a Saturday morning on a day that we finally have nothing much planned! My husband is grocery shopping - and probably buying too many bags of potato chips & beef jerky - and my kids are indulging themselves in cartoons on DVD after the first 2 days of school... and I'm ready blogs and playing around on facebook.

I came across a blog today that absolutely touched my heart to the core - and made me cry for the writer - for her pain and because of her redemption! I want to share the blog - but I'm prefacing it with a warning that if you're not ready to have some heady reading that will make you think and question "why?" and be amazed at the suffering - and healing - one person had to endure, DO NOT read this right now. At least not if you're like me and will let it touch you & make you think about the ways of the Lord.

Grace is for Sinners is the life story of Serena Woods who has experienced things most of us probably can only see in a nightmare. She is the child of a 15 year old prostitute, who after a childhood of abuse and neglect grew up to find the Lord ... and to not let her past dictate her life but to overcome - and even then, the rest of her story is on another blog I read, Like a Warm Cup of Coffee, where more of Serena's journey is told in 3 parts: she has her own fall from grace in her marriage - and was yet again drawn back to forgiveness and restoration that only God can be big enough to give.

I could go on & on about the thoughts her story invoked in me: so many of us strive to just live a comfortable life - to make a happy home for our family - to shelter our children from the "bad things" that go on in the world ... and yet, while we are trying desperately to have happy, Christian homes (and that is absolutely the MOST noble goal in the world!!), the bad world is affecting life after life after life ... and GOD loves every one of those souls who are being abused and hurt and who are stuck in cycles of poverty, disease, sin, and perversion.

In my own family, we had some things happen over the years to me and others that were ugly and hurtful and sinful and undeserved or sometimes self-inflicted --- BUT when I was a child, I was given the chance to find God, to ask Him to save me from my sins - and to prepare for me a home in His heaven!! My parents found and accepted Him too - and despite the sins of the past, they tried to live right and do right and raise (rear?) me - and my brother - right.

Now in my own marriage and family, I have a husband who wants to serve the Lord; I have children who know how to pray and who know about the Bible and who will be sheltered - as much as lies in me & by the grace of God - from sin and its ugly consequences. Do I deserve this life?? Did I do something to earn this favor, this comfortable life I have (despite the times I get discouraged because I don't have all the money I want or think I need??)?? No, there is no reason why I was born into the situation I was born into any more than Serena Woods was born to a 15 year old prostitute.

And yet, we all have personal responsibility. We can not blame our pasts for our present states of being. Especially not if we know the Lord. Though we can't always understand His ways or His sense of "fair" (one of my big gripes in life - even as children will often say - "it's just not fair"....), we have to trust that He knows the "why's". Why one child is born to Christian parents and lives a life that revolves around serving Him all their days -and why another child is born to a single parent in adverse poverty and is abused, neglected, and violated in its innocence. And yet that second child CAN be a productive, happy Christian who overcomes. And perhaps their journey with God is a little deeper, a little more aware of GRACE, a little more grateful for the great price Christ paid for ALL sin?? I wish every child could have a happy, complete, clean, godly home ... but because sin is in this world, it just isn't possible.

If you're still with me on this, let me conclude by saying, the story of Serena encourages me that NO ONE is hopeless - and reminds me that we are all accountable for what we do and the choices we make. There are no victims with God - He says we can ALL overcome. For some it is easier; for others, harder - but there are NO excuses. Today I am 100% more thankful for the home and family I have, and I am 100% more aware that there is sadness and injustice and ugliness in this sinful world; however, there is great, great hope in the Lord's grace and mercy. I doubt I will ever be someone who can help those who like Serena have been through things like she endured - and to touch others who walk through our church doors who have had incredibly unfair childhoods - but I can at least hope that I will have a little more compassion, a little more patience as these find the Lord. Many don't want to - or don't know how - or just can't quite "get it" - and it is so hard to see people NOT realize they can have deliverance ... but now I can pray more that they will eventually allow the Lord in. I can't imagine my life without Him ... can you?