Grace: Undeserved support

Undeserved: Unearned

Support: Empowering others to do things for themselves

During the past several weeks, the pastor of the church that I attend has been preaching about the ways God shows grace to us.

While I have been thinking about cymbals.

We drummers obsess about the size, thickness, and beauty of the cymbals we covet. We wonder whether to play them with sticks, feet, mallets, brushes, or to crash them together to get just the perfect sound at the correct volume.

In Verse 5 of Psalm 150, the psalmist encourages us to praise the Lord with cymbals. In Verses 1-3 of Chapter 13 in First Corinthians, Paul warns us that if we do superhuman deeds; and/or interpret the world around us with unerring accuracy; and/or sacrifice ourselves to the max — but are without love — we are only resounding gongs or clanging cymbals. Cymbals with love praise God; cymbals without love only clang.

Imagine a cymbal being dragged down the street behind a bicycle, its clanginess alternatively muffled and amplified by noises around it. Or imagine a cymbal-turtle slithering on its bell, the slightly raised portion of the cymbal that sounds like a bell when struck by a drumstick.

Amazing where my mind can go during a sermon.

In Verses 4-8 of First Corinthians Chapter 13, Paul speaks of how love is always patient, kind, protective, trusting, hopeful, and persevering; how love does not envy, boast, or show pride; how love does not dishonor others, seek a quid pro quo, or become easily angry; how love does not keep score of the wrongdoing of others and rejoices with the truth. Love never fails.

Pretty intense and overwhelming.

Love and grace are intertwined. They reinforce each other. And if we find it hard to accept these intertwined gifts, it can be even harder to show them to others.

Accepting grace and love is hard for me. It’s even hard to accept compliments; as I thank the complimenter, I catch myself thinking: “They’re only saying that because I’m blind”; or: “If they only knew.” But I have strengthened my accepting compliments muscle through the grace and love of others, as well as lots of practice. How much harder to accept God’s undeserved support?

I have seen glimpses of this grace through a motley crew of adults, stepkids, and guide dogs. I have glimpsed grace by listening and creating music, being part of diverse communities that learned to work together to get good work done, and watching others who seem to have a better handle on this grace thing than I do.

I have learned that giving grace makes it easier to receive grace. I have discovered that creativity can be a part of grace. I have learned that forcing myself to understand grace makes it harder, and that grace is more a feeling than a thought.

And that grace starts with humility and gratitude.

So let’s transform ourselves from cymbals that resemble clanging turtles to musical instruments that glorify our Creator through grace and love.