Grace Sitting Across The Table

“Jesus calls us to follow Him,” says Jamey. 
​
So, he walked down the aisle, at a young age, at his childhood church and made a declaration that he was inviting Jesus into his life.  He then went on with his life, experiencing a few struggles, as he tried to understand the set of rules that were placed on Christians. He saw being called to live a life that is God-honoring came with rules.

Because of that struggle within, he found himself on a journey. It was not a mapped out or planned journey, but the rules he felt were placed on Christians caused him to continue to look, because Christianity felt incomplete.

Once Jamey left home for college, he began to be exposed to new ideas and beliefs about religion and embraced it with an open mind.  It was not that he abandoned his Christian faith, but he wanted what he held onto tightly to feel complete. So he listened and pondered. Some of the new ideas offered morsels of truth, but still never set well with him; still never felt complete.

Then, one day in his sophomore or junior year, he found himself no longer content with some of his life choices.  His journey was leading him to where he had started; the religion of his youth. And in that place he found grace and as he says, “It changed everything.” He goes on to say:

• It made sense
• it was complete
• it was worth it.”

Jamey mentions a quote from Andrew Murray, which he states in his book, Humility, 

---

​“It is necessary to understand that it is not sin that humbles most, but grace.”

Often when we live in sin, we figure out how to navigate it, mostly by making excuses for why we do it. It’s not that we don’t know it’s wrong, we just figure how to make it feel right for us to do it. It is through the justification of our wrongs; our sins, that we fail to see the need for adjustments. And on the inside, sometimes really deep within, we live in the shame of it. Although we’ve made it an "okay thing" for us to do, there are still people and places we try to hide that behavior, because we know it’s wrong.  And that type of living actually hinders our living. Whether we recognize it or not, that living binds us; we don’t live in freedom.

What Andrew Murray’s statement says to me is that our sin does not cause us to see our need for a savior. It rather encourages us to live in pride, which is another sin in and of itself, or it causes us to live in shame. Neither scenario leads to freedom. But grace, on the other hand, is God’s unmerited favor. It is giving us that which we do not deserve. It is loving us in spite of ourselves, which allows us to see ourselves for who we are; sinful and in need of a Savior.

Seeing ourselves as sinful can be hard to accept because sin causes our hearts to harden. It causes us to even be hard on ourselves. And it makes us think that we are not worthy, which leads to more sin. Right? You know, “if it doesn’t matter then I’ll just do more of it.”

Then to think that God who sits high and looks low is extending grace to us, especially when we feel Christianity offers a list of rules that we fail to keep daily, is amazing and yet mind boggling.​​

​“Though the Lord is exalted, he looks kindly on the lowly; though lofty, he sees them from afar.” (Psalm 138:6)

Andrew Murray has another quote in that same book, “God has no pleasure in afflicting us, but He will not keep back even the most painful chastisement if He can but thereby guide His beloved child to come home and abide in the beloved Son.”

So in Jamey’s case, he sat across the table from a man. You see, God was allowing Jamey’s sins to show him a need for change, not a set of rules. And this man, to whom Jamey confessed the things that were keeping him in bondage, showed him grace. This man didn’t pretend that Jamey’s sins were acceptable. He didn’t send him out with a reprimand and the list of rules to familiarize himself with again, so he could do better. No, this man, who we come to know as Mr. Kenny, just acknowledged what Jamey knew. He lovingly acknowledged that the things Jamey was doing were probably not what he should be doing. But because of God’s love, Mr. Kenny loved him and there was nothing Jamey could do that would change that.

This is grace and it changed everything. 

It was through that picture of grace that Jamey began to believe that God could and did love him. Now, the rules. The reality is the rules didn’t change. Yes, God wants us to live a life that draws others to Him, but when the way of life is seen through the lens of love and grace, they cease to be rules and instead are us showing reverence to the one and only God. 

---

​In this case, grace saved a life.

​Check out Jamey’s full interview and go in grace and after, extend grace to your fellow man. Because who knows? It could maybe save a life.