What I Need To Let Go

 by Chris Jones

I’m a critical person…a very, very, very critical person.  Honestly, I’m just hard on people, much harder than people deserve.  The problem?  I expect grace from everyone…and I’m critical of others when I don’t get it.  There just isn’t any life in that cycle.

These are all difficult admissions, but necessary.

Last Sunday, during worship, our Pastor challenged us to ask God what we need to let go.  It took nearly zero nano-seconds for God to tell me that I need to let go of the need I feel to be right.  …ouch.  Harder than hearing that, I felt like I needed to share this epiphany with my wife.  Thankfully, she made it easy…or maybe it was the mild shock my confession induced, as she sat it what I now realize was stunned silence.

I especially feel a need to apply this to the desire to share my understanding of God.  He is great, so great.  Yet, all I know of Him is only what He has revealed.  It isn’t hard to imagine the small fraction of a percent of what glimpse we’ve seen, compared to all He is.  What justification, then, does this give me to argue that I’m more right about Him than anyone else?  All I can effectively do is live a life that inspires others to see Him for themselves.  What better way to live that life, than by showing grace?

His grace, in exchange for my need to be right, sounds like a good deal.