"Grace without repentance and accountability is called “enabling.” Grace creates the space for repentance, repair, and reconciliation."
This quote resonated with me for 2 reasons. First, I am reading Deitrich Bonhoeffer's, Discipleship and he begins his book with "Cheap grace is the mortal enemy of our church. Our struggle today is for costly grace." He uses similarly strong language about cheap grace in the entire first chapter. It evokes a visceral reaction. I loved your interview with Kirsten on your podcast, so I make this connection as a response to her involvement in the political realm. Deitrich Bonhoeffer has been a great model of acting ethically in the political and social realms, and an ethic of grace, costly grace, has been revealed as our starting point. The second reason this resonates with me is due to my history as a recovering addict, and since addiction is a family disease, I have seen cheap grace in the form of enabling and costly grace in the form of speaking the truth in love and letting go. People enable because they think they can "fix" the person. This breeds resentment in the heart of the recovering addict. You can't treat a disease by pointing out someone's moral wrongdoing and hope they will just snap out of it. You can hope that they will find a connection with their higher power who will eventually bring that person to a point of surrender. And that higher power is the only one who can bring that person to repentance and restoration of "sanity" to find a way to cope with the disease of addiction as the 12 steps say. Costly grace is learning how to let go and surrender, both on the part of the enabler and the addict.
Maybe we can view the "other" as a person wrestling with an addiction that they didn't choose. Maybe we can view them as someone in need of a healer. Like the sick that Jesus went out of his way to heal. Or the demon possessed people Jesus restored. Maybe instead of viewing them as an obstacle to our agenda, we can see their humanity, have compassion and trust Jesus as the healer and giver of grace. But this requires hope, and hope is hard because we can't see it, touch it or obtain it in our own power. It costs us something because we have to surrender our own power in order to have faith in God's power to heal and restore.
Ok, I was on the fence about this one as I read through the first part of your post -- because I'm listening to so many conversations right now about how [false] "grace" ends up white-washing things that harm those already marginalized. BUT your quotes brought the fire that convinced me -- I want to read this book.
"If there is one practical idea that encapsulates grace, it’s the belief that people are doing the best they can with what they have." Wisdom both for how we view ourselves and how we interact with others.
"Grace is an idea worth saving, and in the end, it might just be what save us – in ways we have not yet imagined."
In the early church, The Holy Spirit used grace to generate worship, create community, and enable vocation. There is no greater way to experience meaning than in a reciprocal relationship generated by grace. I'm glad Kristin has invited us to leverage grace in public discord. Can't wait to read it!
“Grace exists especially for the person who we may feel is uniquely unworthy of it. “ This is a good one to keep on hand to use as a measure: “Does this person seem uniquely unworthy of grace from me? Great! Then ive identified someone I need to give grace to.“ (I’ll need at least a week to work this one out. Lol)
So many good quotes there, but this one stands out this morning:
“…one of the hallmarks of grace: to not see people as the sum total of their mistakes, bad decisions, or even bad beliefs.“
Reminds me of a lyric from U2’s song titled Grace:
“Grace finds goodness in everything; grace makes beauty out of ugly things”
For more: https://www.u2.com/lyrics/53
"Grace without repentance and accountability is called “enabling.” Grace creates the space for repentance, repair, and reconciliation."
This quote resonated with me for 2 reasons. First, I am reading Deitrich Bonhoeffer's, Discipleship and he begins his book with "Cheap grace is the mortal enemy of our church. Our struggle today is for costly grace." He uses similarly strong language about cheap grace in the entire first chapter. It evokes a visceral reaction. I loved your interview with Kirsten on your podcast, so I make this connection as a response to her involvement in the political realm. Deitrich Bonhoeffer has been a great model of acting ethically in the political and social realms, and an ethic of grace, costly grace, has been revealed as our starting point. The second reason this resonates with me is due to my history as a recovering addict, and since addiction is a family disease, I have seen cheap grace in the form of enabling and costly grace in the form of speaking the truth in love and letting go. People enable because they think they can "fix" the person. This breeds resentment in the heart of the recovering addict. You can't treat a disease by pointing out someone's moral wrongdoing and hope they will just snap out of it. You can hope that they will find a connection with their higher power who will eventually bring that person to a point of surrender. And that higher power is the only one who can bring that person to repentance and restoration of "sanity" to find a way to cope with the disease of addiction as the 12 steps say. Costly grace is learning how to let go and surrender, both on the part of the enabler and the addict.
Maybe we can view the "other" as a person wrestling with an addiction that they didn't choose. Maybe we can view them as someone in need of a healer. Like the sick that Jesus went out of his way to heal. Or the demon possessed people Jesus restored. Maybe instead of viewing them as an obstacle to our agenda, we can see their humanity, have compassion and trust Jesus as the healer and giver of grace. But this requires hope, and hope is hard because we can't see it, touch it or obtain it in our own power. It costs us something because we have to surrender our own power in order to have faith in God's power to heal and restore.
Thank you so much for this wonderful reflection.
Thank you!
Ok, I was on the fence about this one as I read through the first part of your post -- because I'm listening to so many conversations right now about how [false] "grace" ends up white-washing things that harm those already marginalized. BUT your quotes brought the fire that convinced me -- I want to read this book.
Kirsten fights hard for the marginalized. No giving in there at all.
So encouraging. <3
The difference between peace-making and peace-keeping... that's a lot to chew on!
"If there is one practical idea that encapsulates grace, it’s the belief that people are doing the best they can with what they have." Wisdom both for how we view ourselves and how we interact with others.
Wow, this is good! Here was my favorite quote:
"Grace is an idea worth saving, and in the end, it might just be what save us – in ways we have not yet imagined."
In the early church, The Holy Spirit used grace to generate worship, create community, and enable vocation. There is no greater way to experience meaning than in a reciprocal relationship generated by grace. I'm glad Kristin has invited us to leverage grace in public discord. Can't wait to read it!
“Grace exists especially for the person who we may feel is uniquely unworthy of it. “ This is a good one to keep on hand to use as a measure: “Does this person seem uniquely unworthy of grace from me? Great! Then ive identified someone I need to give grace to.“ (I’ll need at least a week to work this one out. Lol)