“Dear God,
I am so afraid to open my clenched fists!
Who will I be when I have nothing left to hold on to?
Who will I be when I stand before you with empty hands?
Please help me to gradually open my hands
and to discover that I am not what I own,
but what you want to give me.
And what you want to give me is love,
unconditional, everlasting love.
Amen.” (Henri Nouwen).

Lord, when will we be able to let go of rule-keeping and sin-management and live in Your free and abundant grace? When will we stop condemning the sins in others that we don’t struggle with and admit that we ourselves are always in need of grace and forgiveness? When will we realize that the greatest power for change is not in picket signs or persuasive arguments or correct morality, but in full-on, unconditional, unlimited agape love?

Lord, You have told us that because of Jesus You are pleased with us. You have told us that You love us and even like us just as we are in all our unholy mess. You said You would keep loving us until all that is unlovely in us is gone and only what is lovely, what is pure, what is worthwhile, will remain. In other words, until all that is in us is You.

Help us to believe. Help us to remind each other of Your grace and be living examples of what that grace can do. Lord, I don’t think the world needs another person telling them what’s wrong with them and with the world. They don’t need to be told how they will bust hell wide open.

They need to be told that You can save them. They need to know it’s never too late to turn away from futile and empty lives and find all the beauty and joy and contentment and peace they could ever hold (and then some) in You. They need to know You will find them and rescue them and never let go. Ever.

Help me to live in a way that shows them how good and great You are. Help us all to live that way. May our lives be the prayers that you answer to bring the lost sheep home. Help us to be honest and broken and messed-up and crazy and willing to go wherever you lead. May we remember that the gospel is, after all, good news. Not more rules to follow or guidelines to live by, but the announcement that the debt has already been paid and the righteous requirements met and the victory won.

That’s the gospel. That’s good news. That’s grace.