Five Minute Friday: Grace

Jen Bradbury
Nov 06 · 5 min read
5minutefriday

Linking up with Lisa-Jo Baker‘s Five Minute Friday. The rules: Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking. 

This week's prompt: Grace. 

When I interviewed for my current job, one of the interviewers asked me to share about my previous experience with the ELCA, the denomination in which I also spent my first year in ministry.

I responded by saying how much I appreciated the ELCA's emphasis on grace. This was especially true for me at the time, when I was immersed in a very legalistic congregational context, desperately longing to be back in a community where the gospel of grace would consistently win in the battle between the law and the gospel.

This is important to me because as a youth worker, I've had the privilege of experiencing both the power of grace and of giving grace to underserving students. In fact, I do the latter fairly easily.

I readily give students second, third, eighth, and twentieth chances. What's more, I relish the look on their face when they receive a chance they didn't earn. I love leaning into that teachable moment and reminding them that that's how God operates, too.

Yet, truth be told, though I've experienced the power of grace in my own life, I still struggle greatly with receiving it.

It's far easier for me to see my imperfections than it is for me to see my value. It's far easier for me to dwell on my failures than on my successes.

Take, for example, last week. I had a great week of ministry. We served at Feed My Starving Children and then raised money for transitional housing for homeless families at an overnight event. I watched as one of my student leaders led an incredible discussion and sat in awe of the ways I've seen God transform this girl in the last year. Yet, in the midst of this, I received an angry e-mail from a parent I inadvertently hurt. Regrettably, that e-mail eclipsed the dozens of ways God moved in our ministry last week.

If one of my students told me that, I'd remind them that God is bigger than the messes we make. I'd tell them that grace always wins and I'd explain that sometimes, the hardest person to show grace to is ourselves. Then I'd challenge them to do the hard thing and let the e-mail go and I'd hope that someday, I might also be able to do the same.