How Unforgiveness Will Cost You an Arm and a Leg

Davis, our three-year-old, is ambitious and dare I say, extremely self-confident. He's everything I read books to try to be and he can't even write his name yet. Whether it's climbing without fear, jumping off ledges without hesitation, or plowing head first into something unknown and untested, it's obvious that Davis has yet to know his own limits. So, he operates as though he has none. I find it especially humorous when he attempts to grab something that's out of his reach. I have a faint memory from a while back of some left over birthday balloons resting on the ceiling in our living room. The bottom of the string probably sat at least six feet off the ground, and yet there was Davis, in all of his 2 foot, 3 inch glory, standing on his tipped-toes, arms stretched high above his head, grunting as though he were only inches from grabbing it. In reality there was a giant chasm between him and that balloon. You've seen kids do this before right? What is it in their minds that convinces them they are able to reach something so far away?

Then it dawns on me. I suddenly see myself in him. Straining, sweating, and needlessly reaching out to try and grab ahold of that which is outside of my reach: God's grace.

THE WORD

"See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many."

- Hebrews 12:15

Erwin McManus once wrote, "Grace is only needed when it's undeserved." How true that is. But not only is grace, by nature, undeserved, it's also unearned. One of the pillars of the Christian faith is that we are unable to achieve righteousness through our own works or efforts. Isaiah says our righteousness is as "filthy rags." Ephesians tells us it is "by GRACE through FAITH ALONE" that we are saved and not by any effort of our own.

Grace is the balloon and we are the 2-foot-tall toddlers. We cannot reach grace – grace reaches us. There's a common philosophy that God is on top of a mountain and all the different religions are simply distinct paths that one can take to eventually arrive at the same God. That's a horrible philosophy to say the least, considering all these religions completely contradict each other. There’s only one faith among the many that rejects the idea of "getting to God" and instead introduces us to the God who comes down from the mountain to get to us. This is the beauty of the Christian faith.

STEWARDS OF GRACE

Look closely at the instruction given to us in Hebrews. We are told to make sure no one “FALLS SHORT” of the grace of God. But we ALL fall short. We all fail to reach grace. We can’t reach it, that’s the point. So the only way those around us can fall short of God's grace is if we fail to extend it to them.

To be in Christ means not just to be a recipient of His grace but to be a steward of it. Here's the thing about stewards, they simply manage what someone else owns.

Robert Morris famously shares an illustration in his "Blessed Life" sermon series where he asks someone from the congregation to give him a one hundred dollar bill. When an individual does, he then asks, "Why was it so easy for you to just give this to me?" The man replies, "Because you gave it to me right before service!" And therein lies the power of stewardship. When you recognize that what you have has been given to you, it's much easier to give it to others.

The only way we can struggle to forgive those who have hurt us is to fall into the deception that we somehow must find the grace and mercy within our own hearts to forgive them. Friend, you can stop searching, it's not in you. We are not capable of that kind of love and forgiveness within our own strength. We need the supernatural grace of God, extended to us by way of the cross of Christ, and flowing through us by way of the Holy Spirit. This is a job only the Godhead can accomplish.

FROM BITTER TO FROSTBITTEN

Last year I entertained a two month obsession with Mt. Everest. I was reading articles and watching every YouTube video and documentary I could find. When I say I was obsessed, I mean was probably one visit to Dick's Sporting Goods away from booking my flight to Nepal to begin my ascension. Of course there are a few minor details that are slightly concerning...

It's the tallest mountain in the world at just under 30,000 feet where it can sometimes get as cold as -76 degrees. Hundreds of people have died trying to climb it and it's so difficult to climb that most of their bodies are still up there, frozen to the mountain, they can't be recovered. Hundreds more have suffered serious injury in order to make the climb, ranging from snow-blindness, elevation sickness, and lung collapse from the lack of oxygen.

But aside from all that, I mean, just give me a NorthFace sleeping bag and sign me up!

One of the documentaries I watched followed several guys in their attempt to make it to the top of Everest, which on average takes a little over a month. The film discussed the fact that many of the hikers get frostbite, which, if severe enough, can lead to a loss of limbs. Mostly toes and fingers but even up to feet, arms and legs if not addressed quickly enough. One man on this particular trek took off a glove to take a picture as he neared the peak. Those few moments of skin being exposed to the elements cost him several fingers.

Frostbite happens when body reaches below a certain temperature. Our body's reaction to freezing cold is to begin conserving blood towards the center, where all of our major organs are located (heart, lungs, etc.). Basically, under extreme circumstances, your body starts choosing who the "essential workers" are, so the fingers, toes, feet, and hands are the first to lose blood flow, therefore beginning to freeze and decay.

Are you getting the picture? They’re still connected to the body, just not connected to the blood.

Here's what I'm getting at, when we fail to extend the grace of God to others, we fail to extend the blood of Jesus and the result is catastrophic. The New Testament beckons us to think of ourselves as belonging to a BODY with many members. The Church is not an organization, it's an organism. We are to be interconnected to one another and to think of each other as being one part of a whole. If this is the case, the blood of Jesus is what flows through us and gives us life. But a cold heart leads to lost limbs and a cold body leads to lost members.

My inability to forgive is not only costing someone a revelation of God's grace, but it's costing me an arm and a leg. Bitterness is too costly, both to you and to the body.

CONCLUSION

Grace is to be stewarded, not rewarded.

Today you may find yourself struggling to forgive someone for what they said, did, or failed to say/do. The struggle is real, but it's a struggle worth having. Let's put an end to trying to "find it within ourselves" to forgive. We don't have to find anything. Christ found us, bought us, and wants to work through us. At the end of the day people don't need our grace anyway, they need His. Let's keep the blood flowing!