Catalyst Track: Chasing Slow // Day Two

This track, featured on the Catalyst App, comes from Erin Loechner’s book, Chasing Slow.

 

• I used to think the opposite of control is chaos. But it’s not. The opposite of control is surrender.

 

• I used to confuse the words grace and goodwill. But goodwill is not what we have been promised. What we have been promised is grace.

 

• When we wrap ourselves in anything other than truth, in anything that doesn’t acknowledge our authentic being, we risk hiding our inherent, God-given, life-affirming selves.

 

Does one of these statements resonate with you?

 

Maybe you try to control those you lead.

Maybe you can’t extend grace to others because you don’t understand how it was given to you.

Maybe those you lead only see a well-crafted veneer of yourself.

 

Whatever it is, Erin invites us to take an honest look at the things that drive our motivations, fears and lives.

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DAY 2: GOODWILL VS. GRACE

 

I would read the front page of CNN.com and wonder how grace abounds for the killers, the gunmen, the liars, the thieves. These people do not warrant goodwill. So I’d try to give them a free pass. I’d try to envision their lives as difficult, as broken. I’d remind myself that hurt people hurt people, that we’re all in this together, doing our best, fighting hard battles, winning some and losing most.

 

Hurt people do hurt people.

We’re all fighting hard battles.

These are worthy perspectives.

This is not grace.

 

Grace is not giving someone else a free pass because they’ve had a hard day. Grace is not giving yourself a free pass because you’ve had a hard day.

 

God’s version of grace is this:

 

You did this wrong, but look, I did this right. You have everything you need now. Follow me in peace. Go now in freedom.

 

Walk now in abundance.

Grace is giving yourself a free pass and realizing that it isn’t free at all.

Grace is giving someone else a free pass and realizing God has already passed his along.

 

We’ve been tried, and we are guilty of it all.

Surely we don’t deserve goodwill?

But goodwill is not what we have been promised.

What we have been promised is grace.