One of the greatest ways I experience God is through other people. Whether its receiving God’s abundant love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, or even self-control through others actions and words, I see the Lord so vibrantly working through each and every individual. Children are one of the greatest faucets of God’s love I receive and learn from. I’m learning that when I get stuck with the Lord, I just need to get around kids and the Lord will so clearly show me what He is trying to teach me.
So as I wrap up my final week of ministry with the World Race here’s my heart on what the Lord has been teaching me through hanging out with cute, snotty faced, bruised and scraped, messy burmese children.
God brought me back to Matthew 18:3.
“Truly I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
I think Jesus is trying to tell us that as adults/humans it’s okay to not have it altogether. That it is perfectly okay to show the world and loved ones our bumps and scrapes, even our snotty faces, and to acknowledge and communicate with others that we are in need of help. It’s okay to air our brokenness. Jesus wants us to come as the messes we are, not as the cleaned up, almost put together, individuals we claim to be. Jesus wants us to be like a child, who all sweaty and dirty from an afternoon of hard play, without thinking twice, runs into their parents arms as they return home from work, not thinking about the mess that they are, but only thinking of the sweet embrace they are about to get from someone who loves them so deeply.
A child marvels in the messiness of life as they adventure and pursue the unknown confidently, not crippled by the endless possibilities of the future, but excited because the greater the risk, the grander the glory and story.
An adult on the other hand, masks the mess and tries to appear clean and put together. We envy the ones who appear to have it altogether. Yet as we try to appear cleaner than we are, the mess seeps out of us into our lives and the choices we make. We lose that childlike courage and “I can do anything” spirit for one that is just trying to survive. We numb our pain, try to cover up the mess, and live as mature adults “should”.
But God wants us to become like children again. Hair disheveled, dirt behind the ears, and in need of love. Jesus wants us to come back to a place of needing others. Needing his love and others. I am reminded that I am an individual, but at the core of who I am, I am in need of community and others to point me back to Christ, encourage me, and challenge me when I am not doing well.
Think back to a time in your childhood when the world was yours to conquer, you were free to be anyone and anything, and courage was your greatest partner. Let’s go back to being children. Admitting failure, asking for help from those around us, and choosing to get back up to try again.
But to become a child again, we must receive God’s grace for our lives. I’ve struggled with the concept of grace. Undeserving kindness that isn’t earned, but given freely. This is my definition of grace, yet I struggle to receive grace for myself because I am in constant pursuit of becoming a better version of myself and there’s no room for failure. After 16 months of continually getting feedback to have more grace for myself, to let go of my tight grasp on who I am trying to become, and God giving me endless opportunities to see my failures through His eyes, I’ve started to slightly grasp grace.
Grace is the quiet truth that its okay to fail. That our failures aren’t what define us, but give us the unique and epic stories of God’s constant pursuit of our lives. Grace is the second chance most of us are so desperately in need of but can’t understand. And that’s okay. But as we continue to journey in this life God wants us to see that the ultimate opportunity for us to receive grace is accepting God’s free gift of dying on the cross for our sins and giving us a second chance in this life and eternity to come.
Children so freely receive grace. If you think back to when you were a child and did something wrong, you probably didn’t beat yourself up over it, lose a weeks worth of sleep, and then walk around with a chip on your shoulder. You let it go and realized that you could try again. You gave grace to yourself and gave yourself a second chance. You probably gave those around you grace and a second chance too at some point in your childhood.
I want to be a child again. I want to continue to pursue the Lord in the current season of life I am in as an adult, but still have the qualities of a child’s faith. I want to have grace for myself when I fail, and above that have grace for those around me who fail to.
I am guessing you need to have a little more grace for yourself too. Undeserving kindness that isn’t earned, but given freely. Freely give yourself a chance to be forgiven and try again. I know I am slowly working on this and that its going to continue to change my life for the better.
As you continue in this week, I challenge you to enter into a room without it altogether, with a few of those bumps and scrapes out in the open and uncovered, maybe even some dirt on your face as you allow others to help and give you grace for not being perfect.
We are all works in progress and will be until the day we are reunited with Jesus. Let’s live as works in progress and air our brokenness to give Jesus, ourselves, and others the opportunity to extend grace.
I am growing in receiving and extending grace and I’m excited to continue getting stretched in this as I head home to my family who deserves more grace than I’ve given in the past few years.
We can’t enter the kingdom of God without receiving the ultimate grace given to us by God. So let’s receive it, become like children again, extend grace, and live epic stories that are marked with failure, courage, second chances, and grace.
Here are a few lyrics about grace from one of Bono’s songs. A sermon I listened to on grace recently shared Bono’s song and since then I have read these lyrics each day as a reminder of who Jesus is and the ultimate grace he’s given me and continues to give me to receive and give away:
Grace
She takes the blame.
She covers the shame.
She removes the stain.
She travels outside of karma.
Grace makes beauty out of ugly things.
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Here’s a look into younger Michelle and then 23 year old Michelle on her birthday this past month. The commonality in these two photos is that I like to take on things that are too heavy or big for myself. Was stubborn then and still am now. Admitting failure, asking for help, and allowing others to love me is still very much a work in progress. 
These next two photos show that I am still messy and in need of help from others. Life’s too short not to marvel in the messiness of life and choose Jesus as the outcome and lasting hope through the mess. (These photos were too funny not to post with this blog)
