Well, my car has proved to teach me more lessons about Grace. When we think about Grace, we often think about the forgiveness portion. We think, "Wow! God will always forgive me no matter what." Which is true, but we sometimes take this to mean, that we can do whatever we want.
Yet, picture this. You win a car, a very very nice car. Would you say, "Well since I never paid for this car, I think I'm going to treat it like it was a piece of junk, I mean it was free!" No, of course not!! You would do everything you can to protect it. I can vouch for that. I don't eat or drink in my car because I want to protect the new car smell. For a while, I parked away from everyone so that I wouldn't get door dings. I worry about it if their is a chance of hail. I am more aware of the importance of it's maintenance.
The other day I was in my car and it told me that three of my tires had lost air. I had figured it was probably due to the cold front that had just blown in. Because of this, I had to go to Quicktrip and fill the air in my tires, for the first time. I ended up messing it up because I didn't press the button and so I had to get back in line to try again. This was a process, and it wasn't my favorite thing to do, trust me. Yet, this car is a gift and it's valuable to me to take car of it. Yet, after awhile the occupation of taking car of the new car seems less important, we start to take the car for granted. This is where discipline.
I say all of this to show you a subtle, yet very important different between discipline and legalism. I have a nature to become legalistic due to my perfectionism and I've been trying to stray far from it for years. Yet, God has taught me that the way of life is not to be shy of discipline.
Sticking to the car analogy, Legalism is when you get a new car and you decide not to drive it, because you just don't want to wreck it. True story: my grandma bought me a Betsy Johnson watch. If you don't know, Betsy Johnson is my favorite designer. I was so nervous that I would break it that I didn't wear it for months.
Legalism is a lack of trust in God's grace. It's being so scared that we will fail that we just bail. As a perfectionist it is often much easier to bail than to take the risk of failing and I can say I have done this many times.
Yet with God's grace, why not take the risk? I don't know about you but if their was one person I would bet on; it would definitely be God. For when you drive the car, we as humans may mess up and we may fail, but we must trust in God's grace to catch us when we fall.
Discipline is taking care of God's gift and allowing God to change you from the inside out. This is scary though. We do not want to get in the car and fully trust God's grace, because we may be worried that we might fail. Yet the key word in that sentence is We. We do not need to be worried about what we do because God is in control.
Unlike a car, God's grace can never be totaled.
So let's try two things. 1. Let us stop trusting in ourselves and get in the car. 2. Let us decide to take care of the car, not because we are scared of displeasing God but because of the sheer responsibility that comes with the gift itself.
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Many blessings,
Kenady Shope
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