Urgh. The year of endurance endureth still. Is it 2018 yet?

Four months till enduring is over and I'm free to quit everything at the drop of a hat and flake out on every single commitment. I'm so over it and yet still learning.

This week's hot topic: the importance of grace.

I find the concept of grace hard to understand. I’ve heard it mentioned so many times and described in so many ways, and yet, WHAT DOES IT EVEN REALLY MEAN?!

As ever, my best understanding comes through story and song – my favourite depiction of grace is in Les Miserables. One of the main characters expects to be executed and instead the very person he had spent decades persecuting lets him go free. He simply cannot cope with such undeserved mercy in return for all the bad he had committed against this person. It completely changes everything he knows about the world and himself. He simply cannot comprehend a world where such mercy exists and finds the weight to great to bear and so he kills himself. He sums it up as this:

And so it must be, for so it is written on the doorway to paradise that those who falter and those who fall must pay the price.

In his mind, if you fall you pay the price, there's no forgiveness, there's no mercy, just punishment. And so when he encounters the opposite he simply can't cope (this is just one reason why its good to be flexible)

I think that’s what we mean when we talk about grace right? It’s being given something good, that we don’t deserve, and the giver expecting nothing in return.

Grace that covers our mistakes, both accidental and deliberate. Grace that covers our detours, and faltering steps, our quick breaks to sit and admire the view which then turns into a hour.day.month.year or two. Grace that helps us up and patches up our grazes when we fall over. Grace that energises and inspires when we're losing heart. Grace that continually cheers us on to the finish.

Grace that never fails - not once, not ever.

So let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find the grace to help us in our time of need. Hebrews 4v16

When my heart is weary, when my soul is weak
When it seems I can’t traverse the trail before me
I survey the glory of your agony
And I find the will to fight for what’s before me
Cause you ran the race enduring for your glory

I fix my eyes on you, the founder and the finisher of our faith
I fix my eyes on you, the solace in your suffering is my strength

As I fight to follow, you’re my righteous guide
And you train me to delight in all that’s holy
Heal my broken body, cure my crooked stride
Throw off every weight and sin that clings so closely
I will run the race enduring for your glory

You help me breathe, you’re the only life I need
You died for me, you’re the only life I need
You help me breathe, you’re the only life I need
You died for me, you’re the only life I need