Falling into Grace

From Tammy: This is a guest post from my friend, Heidi Kreider. She is the author of The Secret of Counting Gifts. I loved her book, and have been fortunate to learn much from her in a short time. You can follow her on Twitter or on her blog here.

Running between the pews in my Sunday dress and scuffed church shoes, I hear them again, or at least that’s how my memory goes.  I hear the church ladies discussing someone’s latest escapade… “Well, now, he certainly has fallen from grace, hasn’t he?”

I can remember them tisking all zipped and buttoned in their Sunday best and shaking their Sunday-coiffed hair. I didn’t stop running.  I didn’t need to.  I knew, without knowing the details, that only the really bad ones fell from grace and that those who ran in church weren’t the really bad ones.  I figured I was safe.

Photo credit: Creative Commons

It’s only now, all these decades later, that I remember this.  Truly, this is simply a memory my mind has stored away and I am not sure that my memory is exact.  I do know, though, that I’ve heard the phrase “fallen from grace” more times that I care to count and each time from inside the doors and walls of a church.

Grace = undeserved merit or favor

I grew up with an elementary understanding of grace.  I knew about the grace of Jesus Christ that had Him die for my sins so that I could have eternal life.  I knew that grace was amazing as we sung about it.  Along the way, thanks to the church ladies, I also learned that though the definition of grace is undeserved merit or favor, I had better work hard at hanging on to that because at any given moment, I might screw up and lose it.

Now, all these years later, I’m relearning grace.  Most of what I knew and understood about grace from my childhood was true and right.  My salvation only comes from the grace of Jesus Christ and His grace is amazing.  What I learned by listening to gossip, though, I’ve had to relearn.  By its very definition, I can do nothing to deserve grace.  I cannot work hard to hold on to that which is freely given to me, nor can I fall from it.

Grace is simply that… undeserved merit or favor.

And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works;  if it were, grace would no longer be grace. Romans 11:6

Regardless of what I once heard while running through the church in my Sunday dress and Sunday shoes, there is no “fallen from grace.”  Even if I were to commit the most hideous sin, I cannot fall from grace.

I can only fall into it… which I do, time and time again.

How have you fallen into grace?

***Heidi Kreider is a wife of 18 years… mom to 3 Es… homeschooler, writer, blogger, and Jesus Lover.  She uncovers God’s presence at www.heidikreider.com because everyday is a gift.