The Beauty of Grace

I was recently reading Shauna Niequist’s book Bittersweet when I came across this quote that made me pause and reflect. When speaking about her feelings on motherhood, Shauna simply said this: “Let’s think about grace – grace from a God who loves us and values us and picks us up every time we fall, with just exactly the same love and tenderness you feel when you pick up your kids after they’ve fallen.”

Have you ever watched a child fall? Have you ever witnessed a small one doing something their own way, with such intensity that they don’t see the danger in front of them? And although you know it’s going to end badly, before you can say anything you idly watch as the child falls into a pile of tears and scrapes? Have you ever watched a baby who, grinning confidently over their success on one step, falls into giant sobs of failure after falling on the second?

Kayleigh and the SLT, 2013-2014

This imagery brings me back to my time as a Children’s Ministry Intern the summer after my sophomore year at AU. The preschoolers I served had a whole area of the gym all to themselves with all the play equipment they could dream of: slides, towers, balls, cars – you get the picture. There was so much joy in these little ones’ eyes. And then, I watched it happen – a girl started running toward the big, beautiful, bouncy ball that she had her eye on, and in all her excitement she tripped just before she reached it. Or the time I watched as two boys playing tag couldn’t stop their momentum when they saw the person in front of them, and the terrible collision of arms and bodies and legs occurred. The tears began and an adult came rushing in for the rescue, the comfort, and the holding. Because sometimes, in the shock of it all, all a child really needs is to be held.

And as the adult holds the fallen child and loves on him, you hear no “I told you so” or “Bad boy!”; rather you hear the tenderness and compassion. The “I love you”s and the “It’s going to be okay”s. The “I’ve got you”s and the “You’re safe”s. You feel the stroking on the back and the kisses on the foreheads. It’s an image of grace, and love, and tenderness.

And this is the image Shauna gave me of our God - the image of Jesus holding us when we fail and when we fall, with tenderness and compassion and love. Without the “I told you so”s , the “You should’ve known better”s and the lectures, but with grace, each and every time we fall.

And let’s be honest, we fall a lot. We aren’t perfect. Some days, you aren’t going to be there for a resident that needs you. Some days you aren’t going to know the right words to say at the right moment, and in fact, you may even pick the very worst ones. There will be times the event you planned will be a total flop. Sometimes you just won’t get it all done in time, and sometimes you’ll completely forget to do things at all. There will be moments you won’t be kind and loving. Some days you won’t want to be a leader.  And if we’re honest, some days you aren’t going to want to talk to God. You’ll let your school work get ahead of your Bible reading. You’ll desire sleep a whole heck of a lot more than you’ll want to get up for church. For a moment, you’ll seek isolation and depression over community and joy. And you know what?

It’s okay.

In fact, in case you haven’t realized it yet – God made you human. God made you fragile. God created you in a way that allowed for failure. If God expected you to never mess up, to be perfect – he would have created us that way. But instead, God gives us freedom, and more importantly (especially for when that freedom leads to us falling down) grace.

Grace that we can’t truly feel until we fall down; until we feel the arms of God pick us back up tenderly as a father would a child who has fallen. And as God picks us up, He whispers:

- “I love you” (Rom 5:8; Zeph 3:17)

- “It’s okay” (2 Corinthians 12:9; Rom. 3:24)

- “I’ve got you” (Psalm 23)

- “I’m with you” (John 14:16-17; Isaiah 41:10)

- “I’ll heal you” (Psalm 107:19-21; Psalm 30:2)

- “I’ll help you” (Isaiah 41:13)

Kayleigh and her husband, Taylor

We were not created to be perfect. We will fail. Allow that to sink in.

In student leadership it is so easy to live into the lie that you always have to have it all together. That there isn’t room for mistakes. But believe me, there is! I challenge you to make mistakes without guilt – make them with grace. Allow our Father to hold you and to teach you. We all make mistakes, but only the wisest of us can use them to make us better instead of bitter.

I hope today, and this year, as you journey through student leadership, you can give and receive grace.  Jesus will be there waiting to hold you.

Blessings,

Kayleigh (Mower) Allred

Morrison Hall DC, 2012-2013

ULC Director, 2013-2014