Sunday, in our first service, Pastor Ray led us in a familiar song…”Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound…” During the song I really felt a stirring inside of me about that one line. I know there is so much more to that song, but that one line kept sticking in my head and sinking down deep inside of me. I pulled my prayer journal out of my purse and decided to just write what came to mind. I was amazed at what flowed from my pen. So, I am going to share these thoughts that are on paper and that I cannot seem to get out of my head!
The song starts by saying that the sound of the word “grace” is a “sweet” sound. How often, though, in our day to day lives does the sound of grace become bitter rather than sweet?! We talk about our car dying, pipes freezing, pipes bursting, having to pay bills, having to eat food we don’t like (one I struggled with several times this week), having to do housework, doing laundry, and the list goes on. The more we complain or dread these things the more our attitude changes and before we realize it, we don’t speak or act with grace at all. We try to justify our behavior by saying “You don’t know what I am dealing with.” “You just don’t understand.” “If you only knew what my day or week was like.” Really?! God sent His Son to earth to die for YOU. Jesus endured unimaginable ridicule and ultimately the worst imaginable death…for YOU. All to show YOU grace…you know…the one with a sweet sound?! As we get wrapped up in our own lives the word grace seems to flee our vocabulary and we begin to feel like someone, somewhere owes us something because our life is so horrible. Really?! At least you have a car to break down…some don’t. At least you have pipes to freeze or burst…some people can’t even get clean water and have disease and illness because of it. Praise God for the bills because it means you have a roof over your head, heat to stay warm, air to stay cool and electric…somewhere, even here in Oklahoma City, someone is living in a cardboard box (if they’re lucky) under a bridge. Some people would kill for food and many actually die because they don’t have it and we complain because we don’t like what is on our plates?! I could go on, but I think you get the point. At what point did we become so much better than everyone that we think we deserve a perfect, foolproof life?! I am talking to myself here too…this has gotten so deep inside of me that I have caught myself almost in tears thinking about it. I even caught myself today, hours before writing this, getting upset with someone because they were slow in service and didn’t listen when I was calling them for customer service. I felt pretty convicted because I was acting like a brat over internet…how many people would love to have that?! How often do we take the attitude that grace is meant for us, but not for anyone else? Why are we so quick to think that the sweet sound of the word “grace” is meant to cover us and all of our mistakes, but not anyone else’s? It isn’t just about God having grace for us, but it is meant for us to pass along to others. Has the sweet sound of grace become the bitter sound of grace in your life?! Sadly, sometimes it is a bitter sound in my life. Is there a magic trick to change the bitter sound back into a sweet sound?! Not really, we just have to always remember the grace that God has given us and remember that God gave it to us with the purpose to pass it along to others that we come into contact with. “Amazing Grace how ______ the sound, that saved a wretch like me….” Kinda hard to fill that blank with the word “bitter” once you continue the song…it doesn’t make sense and it shouldn’t make sense in our lives either!
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost,
But now I’m found
Was blind
But now I see!
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