Are you the good one or the bad one?

Is there such a thing as a “bad person” or a “good person”?  I would say that we are all a mixture of both.  The only other choice is that we are all bad people — because it’s clear that all of us have missed the mark in one way or another.

But in a world of dichotomized thinking we often have people placed into one category or the other in our own minds.

Thank about the story of the prodigal son.  There were two sons.   One went off and did a lot of awful things, squandering his inheritance.  People often see him as the “bad son.”

The good son stuck right by his father, loyal, doing everything write.  The “good son” so to speak.  But when we see what was in his heart by the way he responded to the grace offered to his brother.   He was bad — just in a different way.

I used to say when I was younger that my tombstone would read “her only sin was self-righteousness.”  I identify with the “good brother” in so many ways.  But I must confess that often in my life, I have showed the same anger and judgment in my heart towards others when I resent the lavish grace they receive from God when they didn’t do anything to deserve it.

And God has to remind me once again that grace is never deserved.  It is “unmerited favor” — something we can’t earn.  Grace is a thought that changed the world.

Today I wish you grace and the freedom that comes to offering that grace to all those around you… because God shows it to you every day.

Because Grace makes beauty
Out of ugly things

Grace finds beauty in everything
Grace finds goodness in everything