Good Morning CityGate Family!
People are going to disappoint us. They’ll misunderstand something we said, forget something that mattered to us, respond poorly or simply see something differently than we do. That’s part of doing life with other people. Of course, the uncomfortable part is that we’re going to do the same thing to them.
Paul writes in Colossians 3:12, “Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.”
I love the picture of “clothing ourselves” with these things because it suggests that grace is intentional. These aren’t just qualities we hope show up when everything is going well. They’re things we choose to put on as we interact with the people around us.
The challenge is that we tend to give ourselves the benefit of the doubt much more quickly than we give it to someone else. If I respond badly, I know I’ve had a difficult day. If I forget something, I know how much I have going on. But when someone else does those things, it’s easy to assume something about their character or intentions.
Maybe making room for grace means remembering there’s probably more going on in someone else’s life than we can see.Paul continues, “Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you.” (Colossians 3:13 NLT)
Those first few words are worth sitting with: make allowance for each other’s faults. Leave some room for people to be imperfect. Leave some room for a bad day, a mistake or a misunderstanding.
The church was never meant to be a community of people who always get it right. It’s a community of people learning to follow Jesus together, and that means learning to make room for grace along the way.
Living in grace,
Pastors Matt and Jen
