For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9
I felt a twinge in my stomach as I glanced toward my rear view mirror. Watching those blue and red lights flash violently, warning me to yield to the law and pull over, was not what I planned for my day.
Although this was not a familiar experience for me, as I watched the kind, round faced man walk towards my door, I knew what was coming.
"Ma'am do you know why I pulled you over?"
The gentle police officer proceeded to explain that I had rolled quite fast through the stop sign that I could still see in the reflection of my dirty side mirror.
"I'm sorry. I believe you, I probably did. My three-year-old daughter was screaming when I came to that stop sign so I was a bit distracted."
He then went back to his vehicle and proceeded to do his job of checking my automobile insurance, driver's license and I assume several other reports to see if I had any kind of record. Praise God I didn't or my heart might have been beating a little faster.
With three small children sitting in the back seat spewing questions off like fireworks, you wouldn't think I'd feel alone, but I did. I had been wrong and I knew it just as plainly sitting in my mini van as I would if I was standing in a court room. I couldn't blame anyone else, I couldn't argue that it was someone else's fault. It seemed like a fair accusation and I was willing to pay the price. I prayed, "God, I know that kind officer is right. I was wrong. I deserve the ticket so I will humbly receive it and pay the consequences. It was no one else's wrong doing, but mine alone."
After that last sentence you you may be thinking I'm either crazy or don't have much backbone to stand up for myself, but the truth is that the more I grow in my faith walk with Jesus, the less concerned I am about defending myself. The world's message is always that we come first, we should fight for ourselves, we should defend ourselves and stand up for our pride. God's message has always been; repent and believe in love, grace and forgiveness. Never in the Bible will you find God telling us to make excuses for what we've done wrong. He's always commanding us to humble ourselves and truly repent of our sin, daily.
While waiting for the police officer to come back I took the opportunity to reinforce (to my children) how thankful we must be for the law enforcement officers that keep us safe and desire to protect people. My little girls have grown a heart of thanksgiving toward police men and women because we have chosen to instill in them the importance of honoring and respecting those in authority. But sitting there talking with them, I thought to myself, do we have the same respect for God's authority and laws? We all know what sin is and that we shouldn't do sinful things but do we take up the same fear that we do when we break the law? That twinge in my stomach was because I knew I must have been wrong and I respected the law enough to feel the weight of it. That is the similar stomach-turning feeling we get when the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin and calls us to repentance. The difference between breaking state law and God's law is that we have a choice to repent when we sin against God. You could run from the state of Minnesota for a short time but in the end you have no choice; you must pay what you owe them for breaking the law. God however, patiently waits for us to turn our hearts toward him and choose to live a life of repentance.
Mr. officer came back with words that shocked me; I was not at all prepared to hear...
"You violated two other laws ma'am."
Oh my gosh, this is going to be bad, I thought.
"I am going to let you off with a warning, but here is a citation that just states you need to prove you have current insurance, it's an easy fix."
Grace. That was pure grace. Sweet friends, that is what God's grace looks like. Our offenses pile up but still he comes to us with infinite grace. I was prepared to pay the price for my wrong doing just as we deserve to pay the price of our sin but instead we receive undeserved grace.
After thanking him for both the unexpected grace and for working so hard, I drove away with tear filled eyes, in awe of this man's gift of grace. Almost immediately I sensed the Holy Spirit saying something to me that I think some of you may need to hear too....
"While the cross of Christ is the ultimate example of pure grace poured out for you, don't ever forget that you have the gift of living in that profound grace daily. I am with you. My cup of grace will never run dry. Not because you've earned it, but because I am so passionately in love with you."
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