14.6 Jammies or tuxes: the puzzle of authenticity

We open our hands, abandoning to the Lord our perceived needs, recalling his kindness and provision over the years, choosing to believe that he will in fact provide my daily bread.

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We open our hands, abandoning to the Lord our perceived needs, recalling his kindness and provision over the years, choosing to believe that he will in fact provide my daily bread. This is a choice, a skill, a habit, even a spiritual discipline. But it’s an ironic one. I work and work and choose and struggle … to release. It is the central crisis of the fallen human heart to accept provision, acceptance, love.

I AM provided for. I AM loved. I CAN share what I have and who I am with those around me. The welcome itself is enough. It’s everything. What is incarnate grace other than a physical expression of unconditional welcome?

I don’t have to defend myself or wait until I’m “good enough”. After all, even if God himself were to call a forgiven Christian “righteous” (spoiler: he does), the forgiven Christian will struggle their entire life to believe it. We’re so contrary, we won’t even agree with God!

I am enough. My space is enough. The welcome is enough. 

My space then is ready to receive the most important person (the one across from me right now) and to offer a powerful welcome, God’s welcome. Hear me - my space is ready right now.

It takes some serious vulnerability to let someone into my “not good enough” space. The more unhappy I am with the place, the harder it is to believe that I could be worthy to give incarnate grace. But let me tell you something. There is a person in this world who is very, very deep in my heart, and they are a hoarder. It’s hard to say the term because I fully understand what happened to get them there. And there are valid reasons. At this point, they will not let anyone into their space. It would be among the greatest honors of my life if that person would invite me in to talk for a brief time inside, where perhaps they can’t even clear a space. What a HUGE privilege that would be! They would be the host, offering incarnate grace to me, believing that the welcome is enough. They would be welcoming me, overlooking my judgmental heart, forgiving me for any unkindness in my thoughts by being present with me, even in the midst of my messy selfishness. That welcome might change my life.