Walking with a limp...
That phrase has stuck in my mind every since I heard it many years ago, coming from the mouth of an unfaithful pastor who had been restored to his wife and his church. That though he had experienced the incredible grace of God and the forgiveness of people who were closest to him, he would always still "walk with a limp".
The harsh reality that author and pastor Chuck Swindoll reminds us of is that forgiveness is not synonymous with the returning of all rights and privileges. God's grace and forgiveness are there as an ever present invitation to receive with brokenness, repentance and humility, but it doesn't mean that we won't walk with a limp. While forgiveness continues to be the pulse-beat of a grace-oriented ministry, a firm commitment to holiness remains vital , because there is so much pain when lose sight of that in our lives. And some limps can be difficult to walk with for a lifetime - even when we have experienced forgiveness. King David was continually called a 'man after God's own heart'. Yet, once he crawled into bed with Uriah's wife on that moonlit spring night, never again did he know all the former joys of close family ties, public trust, or military invincibility (2 Samuel 11).
I wish I could say that God's grace is always astounding to me. Unfortunately, if I'm honest, I too often take it for granted or miss it altogether. The longer I walk with people, the more I realize how we all walk with a limp of one kind or another, from the circumstances of our lives to the choices we make. There is ever expanding evidence of God's grace from the first chapters of Genesis and throughout the rest of Scripture. It's also abundantly in our lives as well, if we have eyes to see it. This fall we want to explore stories of God's grace in some uncommon places in the Old Testament, that have the potential to change the way we view our limp.