I’ve been going through a series called Spotlight with our students in the student ministry out here. It’s been incredible. The Spotlight series is designed to help students engage in their understanding of who God is. The first few weeks, we have studied who God is not. It’s ironic, though, how many of us find ourselves thinks God is something that He really isn’t. In those first few weeks, students have told me how they always thought some of the things we are learning about were true of God. They find themselves a little less burdened when they figure out that some of the things they grew up believing are not Biblical.
How many other things do we make that mistake in? The false attribution error that comes from our minds and hearts where we’ve made up a scenario that doesn’t really exist. We have defined things the wrong way, and bought into the definitions without ever consulting the manual (Bible). Our culture had bought into a lie that Christianity is about equality and fairness. It’s not.
Even now, I’m sitting in the building where we hold our Sunday gatherings and we have a 24 hours of prayer going on. I caught the night shift. And I’ve enjoyed it. People coming in, weeping as they pray. And all the while I sit here and consider what it is that they are shedding tears over. It could be something specific that they are petitioning to God for. Though, I believe in my heart that there is something deeper going on. If you could only know what God has done in the lives of people, we might see the whole story. I dare not falsely attribute anything upon anyone coming through save this, which I believe to be true: the beauty of the scandal of grace is that it makes life not fair. The story of the Gospel is not fair. And that truth is worth getting passionate about. Even to the point of tears.
God should elicit a response from us. Especially when we consider what He’s done for us. Whether you pray adorantly, confessionally, thankfully, supplicationally, or specifically there is a natural response to talking to God. That may come out in the form of reverence, pensiveness, thoughtfulness, or even weeping. In all cases it is not because of the individual or what they have done, but because of what God has done in their lives through Jesus.
The beauty in the scandal of grace is that it makes life not fair. Thank God for that.
As we gear up to start building a case for who God is to the students here, this is one truth that is inseparable from God. His grace is unchanging and unfair and beautifully scandalous.
leadershape 