“Except by the grace of God, go I.”

Many of you have probably heard similar phrases to that before. In the past I’ve heard different preachers talk about it from time to time and I’ve asked a couple friends what that phrase meant to them, and almost every one of them had same kind of response.  They mostly consisted of “If I didn’t have God in my life, I might have (this) problem”, or “Without God in my life, I may have never changed”, and other similar comments.  I think we all acknowledge that it’s talking about what the condition of our own lives would be like without the presence of God within us. But how far do you take it ? To what extent do you credit the grace of God for where you are in your life?  And how does it impact your personal Christian life?  To me, I think the earlier comments just touch on the basic concept of the phrase.  I think that even as simple as the phrase sounds, it can grab hold of someone’s heart and create a new outlook and even fuel a passion to help the “widows and orphans” and the “poor and needy” as the Bible calls us to do.

I know I personally struggle with giving God the credit that is rightfully His.   When I see someone less fortunate, I’m usually pretty good about thanking Him for giving me grace and a better life than I deserve.  Or so I often think. But even then, many times it’s just a fleeting thought of “Thank you Lord for helping me have a better life than that.”  Sometimes I’m even a little cocky about it and give more credit to myself than I do God, like “Thank you Lord that I’m not like them.”  So yes, I thought about it enough to thank Him, but I hardly spent long enough to ponder the vastness of his grace!  And even worse, when I’m not faced with a sad or difficult situation, I rarely even think about it enough to give him the credit.  I for some reason have a completely different attitude like I actually believe that I got myself to where I am in life today.  Sure, I’m a good person and have always worked hard to have what I have, but so many things are out of my control- or any human being’s control for that matter.  What if my apartment burned down with everything I owned inside and left me homeless and near penniless?  Would I personally have the strength to pick myself back up?  What if I lost my good health and could no longer work and provide?  Or what if I was orphaned as a young child and left without any kind of promising future?  Hmm, thought provoking.  So far I’ve noted these bigger life-changing events, but let’s venture further to imagine a sequence of small ones.  Say someone lost their job, which led to them losing their home, then their car broke down and was too expensive to repair, then they and their children are starting to go hungry because they have no money to buy food, and tomorrow their rent is due but they only have $2 left in their bank account- are you feeling their hurt yet?  They were hard workers just like you and me.  If you would put yourself in “those people’s” shoes, you may feel that true gratitude that we should be giving our Lord instead of the short, easy, and canned “thank yous”.  Of course we could spend all day coming up with “what ifs”, but to me the crux of the matter is that one little turn of events in my blessed life could essentially place me right into the shoes of the person that I just looked at and said, “Except by the grace of God, go I”.

Now it’s a little bit harder for me to say those nonchalant “thank yous” because I feel the emotion of true gratitude and also compassion.  Before, I probably looked at that person and automatically assumed that they are where they are because of something they did or didn’t do- when it may have been out of their control!  I many times forget that it is not up to me to judge someone else.  So not only does that phrase cause me to thank the Lord for his grace in my own life, it causes me to have compassion for those who are less fortunate.

Do I give God nearly enough credit??  No, sadly I do not.  I don’t know if I ever will- He is such a gracious and powerful God!  Do I always show a Christ-like compassion?  Once again, no, I don’t.  But I believe I can continually grow in my relationship with my savior which will help fuel my compassion.  Do I honestly think that from now on, I’ll always think so deeply about every less fortunate person that crossed my path? Absolutely not.  I’m only human.  But I do believe its something I’ll continually remind myself of for the rest of my life.

Maybe I’m overzealous… What do you think??

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