Day 15/March 5 Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Bounce. Don’t break. How? Live this way. Realize how many times you have dropped the ball, or, to continue to this sports metaphor, begin to count the number of times you have missed the entire game. Your tiny and epic fails can teach you more than you may realize. If you’ve screwed up, and you have, this can be the opportunity to realize that grace was extended to you. Okay, yes, someone has snapped your head off at your minor or major mess up, or, gulp, someone definitely has snapped your heard off at your minor or major screw up, but even this can teach you that soft landings are so much better than hard ones. Everyone sins. Everyone wrongs. Everyone acts away from God. We can all be miserable about this; we can even perpetuate a miserable attitude toward others specifically or in general; but this isn’t why Christ died on the cross. Christ died BECAUSE we sin. As he extends (present tense) forgiveness to us, we can—and we should—extend forgiveness in the form of grace to others.
TRY IT: Go easy on ‘em. Yes, as mentioned above, someone has snapped your head off. Someone has also forgiven you. Like significantly forgiven you. You know what I mean when you remember the time you felt so low—and, in the presence and in the love of the person you’ve wronged, stepped on or totally fumbled, that person made you feel not just good, but better. That we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God isn’t a looming, dooming, life-will-never-get-better forecast; it’s the chance for all of us to do what we can do as loved souls built in the image of God: we can forgive. And forgive again. And forgive again. And love and love and love through all of this.
Yes, bounce. Don’t break. How? Pay forgiveness forward.
PRAYER: Lord, may your forgiveness flow endlessly into our forgiveness. Amen.