Running for this person is graceful. Smooth. It is elegant. They seem to glide when they run. It is as if their feet do not even touch the earth. . . They fly.
Now imagine it is the day of an important race.
After years of faithful, diligent, practice, this runner comes to the starting blocks. They are locked in; ready to run and ready to perform. They blast out of the blocks establishing themselves in the lead of the race. They move to the front of the pack gaining a commanding lead when all of a sudden they crash to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
The other runners pass them. But the runner is not deterred. They return to their feet to begin again. But this time the runner is bloodied, bruised, and broken. They stumble; they cannot regain their footing and finish dead last.
So I wonder, is our runner whose story we just imagined a bad runner? Of course not. . . They just had a bad race.
If that runner was part of your family, and if you cared for that person, you would comfort them. You would tend to their wounds and offer them words of encouragement and remind them that there would be another race that they could win. You might help them train and encourage them to put this bad memory behind them. You might say, "press on toward the goal."
And I would do the same.
So the question for today is: do you live this way when someone in the Body of Christ falls down on the track of life, cuts their knees, bruises their soul, and finishes in last place for the day? Or do you remind them that they failed epically and offer them little if any grace when that is truly all they want and need in the moment?
In the Christian faith God asks us to practice what the gospel teaches knowing that we will not perfect our faith. But each day, we hope and we believe in what is possible. . . and as we do, we offer grace to those who fail.
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