Fall from GRACE

Over the years there have been some notable names that have taken the public fall from grace plunge. Names such Bill Clinton, Anthony Weiner, Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart, and countless other names that you can recall in your own mind. These people once had the trust and admiration of the public only to find it erode like sand on the beach at high tide. Their lives played out in public display as if they were being thrown to the beast in the Roman Coliseum. Their actions reprehensible by the moral code of the day. The fall from grace was not only painful for themselves but also their families, friends, and supporters.

These are public figures, names we have all heard of, let's talk a moment about the less than notable people that are closer to home yet far from public display. Often times the fall from grace happens in the privacy of our own homes. Trust betrayed between two people that leaves behind a splintered love that has little hope of repair. The fall may have been painfully slow, or agonizingly swift, either way it happened. The perpetrator was busted and the victim left with the pieces. This fall is way more common in the households of our communities than we may think. It plays out everyday in the silence of our hearts and slowly eats away at the life we hoped to live.

I hope in short order I have given a brief description of the fall from grace, now if I may, I would like to shine the light on a grace disguised or the Rise in Grace. We all fall sometime in our lives. Some fall into deeper pits than others but we all fall. For many the fall from grace is internal because the actions that lead to the fall where never discovered. It was a feeling of depression and anxiety deep within our soul knowing that our fall from grace was seen by the eyes of God and felt in our own heart. Even when the fall is personal it is painful. Yet the rise can still be just as rewarding.

In a society that loves to spit in the face of the accused we allow ourselves to be more barbaric in nature instead of reformers at heart. Anger, outrage, and disappointment naturally follow the exposition of such actions but does it have to end there. Some would say yes because the pain was so bad. When trust and values are broken I will admit the ability to rebuild the bridge can seem impossible. I understand that completely which makes one wonder where I am going with this and why am writing about it.

Life is short and life is once. We do not get a redo, a mulligan, reincarnation, or any of those wonderful things science fiction makes movies about. This is it, which means we absolutely must learn how to make the best of it. I see the condemned live out a life of misery, and I see victims live out lives of misery. I wonder what would happen in a society that reforms, forgives, rebuilds, learns, and shares the pain and the joy of life lessons. Prisons try to reform yet when people are re acclimated to society the world they reenter is not willing to accept their reformation. This in turn adds to the problem and the once reformed person ends up committing another crime that sends them back to the place they worked for years to get out of. It takes people willing to learn and grow to make life worth living. Everyone has fallen from grace sometime in their lives. It most likely was not in public but regardless the fall is just as bad. No matter how hard one tries to become the best person they can be there are still the bullets from the past waiting to be shot out of the gun. It is as if the reformed lives in a glass house and one small miscue causes the walls to shatter. This my friends is not how a society moves forward. This is not the love our faith teaches us. For the so called Christians living the model in which Jesus gave us is quiet difficult and rather risky. Being a people that loves to adapt rules to benefit ourselves we remolded Christianity into a movement that talks about forgiveness, love, peace, acceptance yet few truly lives it. We do not welcome the sinners as Christ instructed we work to exclude them. Whether we would like to admit it or not we enjoy watching the fall from grace as long as it is not in our lives.

By no means will I ever make light of any actions by people that break the trust of those close to them. I will never make light of homes or marriages being destroyed by selfish acts. I will however bring to light that the greatest discoveries have come from the ones that find the courage to rise back up and face the people they harmed. Churches, religions, faith based groups, well meaning people all talk about lifting people up yet few lift a hand. We were born sinners to a society that promotes sin. We are inundated with a moral compass that does not know north from south. Yet we seem surprised when the very people we elevate to such a status that only Jesus could maintain falls from grace.

I wonder what would happen if we all gave just a little. What if we all put out a hand and lifted people up instead of pushing them farther down. It takes love and strength to help people. I love so much the famous quote by Mother Teresa when she said, "it sure is popular to talk about the poor, but it isn't so popular to talk to them". Those are powerful words. We love to talk about people but we do not like to talk to them in such a manner that makes them better. I say this all the time and it is worth repeating, when we fail we expect forgiveness, when others fail we expect justice.

My question to you is simply this, what can you do to find a grace disguised where people have failed you. The grace is there, the lesson is there, and yes the ability to grow and be better is there. Let's see what would happen if we lend a hand to someone instead of make them a doormat to step on for our own self gratification.  Remember we are all sinners trying to work together to get through this life. It is up to us to make our homes and communities better places to live. To make something better we have to learn to grow from our mistakes.  Rise up in splendor and find the grace disguised and in that grace you will find a self (you) that has been waiting for the doorway to the world to open. Stop following the ways of the world and pave your own way with bricks of love. The road to spiritual freedom feels much better than the road paved by the greed and anger of others. Let's be our own life advocate. Let's learn to love again and find the positive's in a world that chooses to expose only the negative. The wonderful thing is this, the positives are there if you just choose to find them.

peace to you
Dale