Grace Seeps

When the power of resurrection

seeps into your brokenness

at all the thin places

and thin times of your life,

it is so radical and transformational

that the transactional world

cannot deal with it.

You begin to let go of all the pretending:

perfection, comparison, competition,

scarcity, fear, blaming, hoarding, ego –

all of the things by which

you had been controlled.

You begin to play by different rules.

The old rules, hard and fast

as they are, become insignificant;

not because you are above them,

but because you have been

moved beyond them.

You can no longer see and act

in binary fashion, checking off lists

of things you will or won't do

because they are right or wrong.

You are both under the control

of and set free by something

much bigger than law.

You are living through Love,

which turns out to be a messy,

complicated rule that refuses

to be exclusively held by anyone

or nailed to any particular place or time.

This Love is a gift.

You didn't earn it.

You don't own it.

You can't choose who deserves it,

because nobody does,

including you.

Yet it's been given to you anyway;

not just parceled out to you stingily,

but poured out on you extravagantly;

given to you so that

you can let its gift and power

soak all the way

to the marrow of your bones,

flushing out all hurt and hatred,

and all other lies of "not enough"

all falsehoods of “not good enough”;

given to you so that

you can reflect it to others;

so that you can share it

with everyone you meet.

Unlike all that other stuff

that controlled you,

this Love shrinks and dies

when you try to hoard it,

and grows and blossoms

when you give it away.

This is your mission –

your life's purpose

from this day forward –

to let the rule of Love

free you to respond with grace,

not because anyone has earned it,

but because we are all

dying without it.

© 2014 Todd Jenkins