THE HANDBRAKE

I was the last of six children, and full of wild energy. There was 13 years difference between me and my eldest sister so she was leaving home when I was leaving for kindergarten. One day my eldest sister was visiting home and I was playing out the front when I noticed her yellow, 80’s-looking, bomb-of-a-car was unlocked. I couldn’t believe my luck. I quickly let myself in and the smell of mischief must have carried on the wind because, as I recall, I looked back and the entire neighbourhood of children had climbed aboard.

We were having the time of our lives; climbing between chairs, pushing buttons, spinning dials and pretending to drive. Only we got the shock of our lives when the car actually began to move. At some point the handbrake had been released and the car now rolled backwards down the hill; gathering momentum as kids abandoned ship left, right and centre right before it crashed headlong into the gutter. As I stood immobilized in adrenaline, the gravity of the situation dawned on me; what if another car or child had been passing by? Someone could have died. I wanted to run but alarmed parents had begun rushing over, including my sister and fuming father whom pointed back to the house and growled ‘get to your room’.

I sat in my room and in my fear and shame; with tears in my eyes, a knot in my throat and a hole in my stomach. Meanwhile, an argument broke out in the other room between my father and sister concerning my punishment. My father was determined to smack me but my sister insisted that since it was her car, and I was already frightened enough, an apology would suffice. My father would have been justified in punishing my foolish behaviour… but in that moment, I was so desperate and grateful for my sisters grace. Her grace not only deepened my love and respect for her but instilled within me a desire to never disappoint her again. I apologised and hugged her with thankful tears, to which, she responded that she was glad I am safe then she took me back out to the car and taught me how to use a handbrake. __________________________________________________________________________________________

We will circle back to this story later. For now let’s remind ourselves of some basics in our faith.

Q1. Why do we need Grace? Man did wrong by disobeying our Good God and sinning. Grace means ‘an undeserved favour’ and it is what we require from God in order to be forgiven for our disobedience.

From my earlier story it could be argued I was a child and didn’t know better… but that doesn’t negate the danger does it?  The bible says those who live apart from God’s law will still be judged under the law because our lives exist to be in relationship with the lifegiver.

Q2. How do we know sin is real? Man’s original sin in eating of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil made us a uniquely moral being amongst creation, torturing us with an impossible desire to be ‘good’ that nevertheless points us back to the Good God from whom we had sinned against and became estranged from. Outwardly sin changed nothing but inwardly sin created within us an insatiable fear, guilt and shame that could only be satiated by hiding both outwardly with clothes and inwardly with self-justification. On friday I witnessed to an atheist who defended their goodness, arguing ‘I simply treat people the way I want to be treated’... Therefore, if I hate myself I am justified in hating everyone else? Never! The old testament law of eye-for-an-eye may be just but it just leaves us all blind to the grace we so desperately need. ‘Treating people how you want to be treated’ is inherently proverted by our own corrupted sense of ‘good’, which is why Jesus demonstrated for us that the highest love is grace, to paraphrase John 15:13 | ‘there is no greater love than to lay your life down for another’.

Q3. If God is real and Good why didn’t he create a universe without potential for sin and where is his Grace in my sin and suffering?

God alone is Good and he wants good for us, in fact, he created this world and man to reflect his Goodness. Most humans will acknowledge that there is no greater Goodness then the supreme moral ethic of Love, hence, the bible reminds us God is Love. However, the most beautiful and frustrating quality of Love is that you can’t make people love you. Love and freewill are inextricably intermingled. The consequences of our sin is suffering but God cannot constantly intervene on our suffering without compromising our freewill to choose to love him... However, God is not powerless, he sacrificed his son Jesus as an invitation for humanity to receive the grace we so desperately need and he so desperately desires to give us. Hence, in our suffering, should we acknowledge our fallenness in humility and choose to  receive God’s loving grace in faith, God saves us, restores us and dwells within us so we need never doubt again.

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Alright now the apologetics are out of the way, let’s get practical.

VALUE ONE. Forgiving graciously, guarding my words and resolving offence.

Let's lighten the mood with a little word play?

You Offend others when you put forward your off/end: better to put forward your living grace than your rotten judgements.

There is no point fencing with offence; it is a-fence you need to get off. Thank you very much [* Elvis Presley voice]. I have clearly been reading waaay too much Dr Seuss.

I know it sounds like a sad joke but if mankind spent less time measuring, colonising and raising fences between ourselves and our neighbours and more time learning other people's languages and guarding our words from carelessly and dominating speech then we wouldn’t need the fences in the first place. You have heard the term think before you speak, well better still, let’s filter our words through God’s grace.

I love the scripture Ephesians 4:26 | Do not let the sun go down on your anger. I have only ever heard this verse preached concerning marriage yet it was intended for the entire church body. Don’t bury shards of offence, anger or hatred in your heart to grow. Yes be slow to anger but when you do anger take it to God as quick as possible, then share it with others again through the filter of God’s grace that powerfully unites his people and testifies to his truth.

Here’s a little more word play to finish us off: since Grace is a divine behaviour let’s say the G' in grace stands for God, making Grace the movement and identifier of the God-Race. Grace is an 'ACE' up the sleeve to defeat AN ‘GR’ and unite the church.

VALUE TWO. Honouring authentically, defending others character against slander and abuse.

This value takes us a step further still by asking us to graciously give to others the ‘honour’ our sinful natures desire for ourselves. Those who honour have honour and are worthy of the same. Those who show grace have grace and are worthy of the same. Honour is not to be mistaken for flattery or conflict. The aim here is not to abuse those that abuse so that in our efforts we are led to become the very thing we are seeking to prevent. Rather, to defend slanderers even against their own selves by reminding them of their God given purpose. The keyword here is to be ‘authentic’ and that is hard work. The father of person-centred counselling Carl Rogers positioned ‘genuine positive regard’ as the essential and unspoken requirement of emotionally healing relationships. ‘Honouring authentically’ requires you to overcome selfishness and prejudice and to faithfully invest in blessing and healing every relationship God entrusts you through praying and searching others actions for spiritual seeds to prophecy into and water.

As you invest in this area your influence amongst men will increase for the glory of God.

VALUE THREE.  Celebrating diversity, upholding the unity of the church.

Difference is to be celebrated not feared because it is evidence of grace at work within the church. Each one of our unique personalities is like a puzzle piece reflecting a small part of the divine qualities of the God whom created and put his image in us. But like a puzzle nothing makes sense or is achieved until these pieces start coming together as a beacon for those who are lost and estranged from God to see. As mentioned earlier, the unity of God's people through grace testifies to his truth.

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Life belongs to God but he shared it with us... Life, if you will, is kind of like a yellow, 80’s-looking car. And we the neighbourhood kids are ecstatic to enjoy, play inside and pretend to drive God’s car, that is, until we do something wrong and everything spirals out of control. We have all had those sinking moments where we realise we are ill equipped to drive this car OR even our own lives and that people are going to get hurt. However, like my eldest sister, God shows grace. Instead of punishing us according to our actions, he asks for our humble repentance. In the spirit, ‘humble repentance’ is the equivalent of yanking up the handbrake. It immediately arrests the judgement and pride that are driving us toward our hellish consequences. From that place of desperation, God’s grace teaches us to turn our lives around and bunnyhop our way back to heaven. Where punishment justifies a person, grace changes them.