I wrote the following as today’s daily devotional at Westside for the Scandalous Grace series. I revised it a bit for this avenue, cause I really wanted to share it with you.

All of you must clothe yourselves with humility for the sake of each other, because: “God opposes the arrogant, but gives grace to the humble.” 1 Peter 5:5

When I think about grace there’s a song that comes to mind. The song, ironically enough, is called, “Grace” by U2. It contains a couple of lines that I would like to dissect a minute.

“What once was hurt – what once was friction – what left a mark, no longer stings because grace makes beauty out of ugly things.”

I believe there is no statement more true than that.

Christ’s death and resurrection is not only the ultimate example of that, but it is the most powerful. Here we have Christ brought to earth as a gift to the world, the first example of God’s grace given. Then we see Him doing nothing but good works on earth. Performing miracles, talking to the unapproachable and all kind of scandalously grace-filled things. Yet, man decides He’s causing a bit too much chaos to their finite way of life and soon kill Him.

But before Christ dies, He took onto Himself, all of our mess. The messes of our past, present and even messes we haven’t yet created. Covering them all in His blood. All the while saying, “bless them Father.”

Grace blesses the recipient — pure and simple. But sometimes to give grace (more often than not actually) it takes humbling ourselves.

In situation that you can remember being denied grace… imagine if you were the denier. More than likely you don’t have to imagine very hard.

One time or another, we’ve all denied someone grace. Whether it was the annoying co-worker you saw at the store but rather than saying hello, you pretended to be on your cell phone or the time you were walking to your car in the dark and saw a homeless individual and immediately reached for your keys in fear and judgment.

Think back on situations where you, yourself, have failed to give grace because maybe by doing so, your hands would have had to get a little dirty. Or, by doing so, you would have had to admit you were wrong. Or, by doing so, you would have had to step out of your comfort zone.

Who will you see today that you might see every day but ignore? Or, may not even notice. Slow down and take a closer look at your circle of influence. No one enters our lives by accident.

Whose life can you bless today by practicing scandalous grace?