“You must pay for everything in this world, one way or another. There is nothing free except the grace of God.” ~Mattie Ross, played by Hailee Seinfeld in True Grit (2010).
There are some things we read and instantly we feel its truth. Considering how life pays us out, even at times when we don’t deserve it, the above quote speaks an innate truth.
How wonderful the wisdom of God is, that it—at the name of Judgment—catches up with every individual, eventually, who has done the wrong thing. We know this by the things that we’ve done wrong. We most certainly (inwardly) hope for that same outcome for those who wrong us—that the Lord would catch up with them.
In this, there is no reason for envy. Patience is a more handsome remunerator.
We can trust the nature of judgment; it has an eternal nature about it. Whether we seek it or not, it comes.
Grace and Judgment – The Span of Eternity
The other side of judgment is grace.
Grace is as certain and as reliable as judgment is, as is its price—not a single earthly currency can buy it, however. It remains at the polar opposite of judgment; its span is eternity itself. So, if we placed judgment in the far east and then placed grace in the far west, and then imagine them both unparalleled in their vastness, we might begin to know two inherent traits of God—the eternal Lord embodying them both, equally.
How is it that the above quote can capture two qualities of God that—so far as cost or, certainty of blessing or consequence goes—couldn’t be more opposite?
Yet, as it is, these do span eternity, so far as eternity plays itself out in the lives of the living on this earth.
Waiting on the Other Side – Enjoying Grace
If we’ve dispensed with judgment, and we wish to explore the vast kindness of God, which is the notion of grace, we can now enjoy the bathing of the mind, heart and soul in a freedom beyond words, sensation, and elucidation.
One solitary freedom is to be enjoyed, but only by the soul who would accept such freedom. Such a freedom is wasted on too many, for they do not take it—squandering their share of grace; a share destined for their unique, and our universal, enjoyment. Infuriatingly, such an enjoyment is never enjoyed by these.
Surely the squander of such a thing should rend our hearts, but regrettably we do not think that way. We find safety in knowing we have it, and it only pains us when this free gift is not enjoyed by loved ones.
Enjoying grace to its fullest is not fretting judgment, for concerning ourselves with worry for judgment—either for or against—is denying, or distracting itself from, grace. Such a predilection for one thing means we cannot enjoy the other.
Grace or judgment: which end of this span of eternity will we endear ourselves with? What will be our focus? Put this way, surely we go with grace, and follow our God into freedom.
© 2011 S. J. Wickham.
No comments:
Post a Comment