{"id":3664,"date":"2024-05-17T14:08:51","date_gmt":"2024-05-17T18:08:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=3664"},"modified":"2024-05-17T14:08:51","modified_gmt":"2024-05-17T18:08:51","slug":"floored-by-grace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/17\/floored-by-grace\/","title":{"rendered":"Floored by Grace"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>

In his book Messy Spirituality<\/em>, author and pastor Mike Yaconelli recounts the story of a home remodeling project.\u00a0

He and his wife decided to redo the tile in their kitchen.\u00a0

Their house, which was situated in a rugged part of California\u2019s Sierra Nevada Mountains, was more than 60 miles from the home furnishings store in the \u201cbig city.\u201d The tile folks called Mike and said they couldn\u2019t dispatch anyone to lay it for at least three weeks.

Perhaps they might want to hire a local worker from the mountains.\u00a0They even suggested a name.

“Absolutely not!” Yaconelli shouted into the phone.\u00a0

The worker the company had suggested was well known to them.\u00a0He was the alcoholic father of a young man they had befriended through their church youth group.

This teenager\u2019s life had been miserable.\u00a0He had been in and out of juvenile detention.\u00a0His father had been emotionally and physically abusive to everyone in the family.\u00a0And now he was the one who would lay the new tile in the Yaconelli kitchen?\u00a0

\u201cNo way,\u201d Mike concluded.

But when it became clear that every other tiler in the area was booked, Yaconelli grudgingly gave in.\u00a0“But I’m not going to let him cheat us,” he said to his wife.\u00a0He demanded a written estimate in advance, and he got one:\u00a0$350 for three days’ work.\u00a0

During those three days Yaconelli hovered over the kitchen like a hawk.\u00a0As the work neared completion, he said to the man, “When you’re finished, come to the other end of the house and I’ll write you a check.”\u00a0

“Oh,” said the tiler.\u00a0“About the money\u2026 I’ll talk to you when I’m done.”

Yaconelli stormed away. He said to his wife, “I knew it<\/em>.\u00a0I knew he was going to try to cheat us somehow. Well, I have a signed contract, and I am not going to pay him one more dime than we agreed.”\u00a0He was still ranting when the tiler, his work completed, came to see him.\u00a0 Here\u2019s what happened next, as Yaconelli recounts the story:

\u201cI was ready for him and glanced at my wife with the look of testosterone on my face. He started to hand me the bill, but then paused for a moment and said, \u2018A couple of years ago I was drinking too much.\u00a0

\u201c\u2019I am an alcoholic and was at a very low point in my life. I almost lost my family because of my drinking.\u00a0I mistreated my wife and my children, especially my oldest son.\u00a0

“\u2019But you and your wife spent a lot of time with him at a critical moment in his life when he could have gone either way.\u00a0Shortly after that I went to AA, and I’ve been sober ever since.\u00a0

\u201c\u2019Because of you and your wife, I still have a relationship with my son.\u00a0I’ve never been able to thank you, but I’m thanking you now.\u2019\u00a0He handed me his bill for $350.\u00a0\u2018Paid in full\u2019 was written across the page.\u00a0

\u201cThis abusing, untrustworthy man…had just shown this arrogant snob the meaning of grace.\u201d

What is the meaning of grace?\u00a0

As proclaimed in a million sermons, it can be an acronym: God\u2019s Riches At Christ\u2019s Expense<\/em>.\u00a0

It\u2019s also an assurance: There\u2019s nothing we can do to make God love us more, and there\u2019s nothing we can do to make God love us less.

And it can be the surprising reality that transforms all of our relationships:

Just as God offers us the gift of open arms, even though none of us deserves a second chance, we can learn to do the same with others.

No wonder we sing that song that says it\u2019s amazing.\u00a0
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here In his book Messy Spirituality, author and pastor Mike Yaconelli recounts the story of a home remodeling project.\u00a0 He and his wife decided to redo the tile in their kitchen.\u00a0 Their house, which was situated in a rugged part of California\u2019s Sierra Nevada Mountains, was more than 60 miles from the… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3665,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[101],"class_list":["post-3664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-grace"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3664"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3666,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3664\/revisions\/3666"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}