apology | considering the word

Reading through the first few chapters of Galatians this morning I was struck by the beauty of the gift of God’s grace–in the fact that He truly doesn’t judge us by our works.

This past week I’ve had several times where I’ve been able to let my guard down with people and just be me and it’s been so amazingly refreshing in a world where our performance is “king.”

It’s exhausting to have to perform constantly, because then you have to out-perform the next time, and the next time, and the next… but if we can just admit that “this is me” and I’m imperfect and although I’m doing the best I can, what I’m most grateful for is that God isn’t judging me on my performance. He loves me for who I am. If I have faith that He says who He say He is, then that’s enough for Him.

If, in our relationships with others, we can not expect people to perform to perfection, but love them for who they are…who they were created to be, we will be releasing them to be free from a burden that even God Himself didn’t place upon them.

Yes, we need to be responsible humans, and we should keep our word. But some days we’ll be brilliant and get it all done, and other days we’ll fall flat on our face. The performance of the day is not the sum total of who we are.

Gal. 4:7 says, “We are an heir of God through Christ.”

We are more than our mistakes. They happen. Get up. And keep moving. Apologize if necessary. Always forgive. Laugh about it if at all possible!

Tripping up,

jamie

this is the performance pic, the other one was a “mistake”…it made us laugh harder, though. 😉

I was sweeping up the pieces of a broken glass lampshade this morning and the Lord showed me how the pieces were like our choices.

I’ve seen pretty memes on social media about how we should live our lives without apology, but a life without apology doesn’t always look beautiful. A life without apology is selfish. It can even be evil. It can look like rape, murder, genocide, incest, abuse, lies, manipulation, or many other things that people aren’t thinking about when they see they first see that statement.

The choices we make in our lives affect other people whether we want them to or not. Cause and effect is a certainty.

Now, if our choices are to sin, things around us break. Even things in the lives of others. We may not like to believe it, but it’s true nonetheless. If we choose to lie, others are hurt. If we choose to murder, others are affected. If we choose to [you fill in the blank] there is a ripple affect.

“Oh, but no one else even knows what I’m doing.” Maybe they don’t, and maybe they won’t, but I assure you that your choices are affecting the people around you. Pieces around you are breaking. Things are not whole and well like they used to be.

Even though I swept up the pieces of that broken lampshade, I am sure there are pieces that are scattered in places I cannot see. Some pieces are so minute that I can’t see them. Some will show themselves later on down the line.

It’s the same with our choices. Whether good or bad, we don’t always see the outcome and affect of our choices until later, and some are so minute we may not notice, but we can know with certainty that our choices have affected those around us.

As Christians, we don’t have the luxury of living a life without apology. Sorry. We have people counting on us and a God to answer to, in the end. We are called to be a living sacrifice…even in 2019.

Sorry, not sorry,

jamie