God's Grace.

Awhile back my family and I witnessed the “Rio Vermelho Justice System” in action. I was sitting in the front seat of our car pregnant with Ezekiel, the girls were in their car seats in the back seat and Nate had just run into a gas station to pay for some gas that the attendant was pumping. All of the sudden I heard a bunch of men shouting and I looked up to see about twenty guys with 2 x 4’s and palm tree branches running towards our car. As I was trying to take in everything that was going on Hope started shrieking in the back seat, “Daddy!!! Daddy!” as she was looking out the window. I looked out the window to see that the men had taken hold of a man that I knew to be one of the town drunks and they were dragging him all around, pushing him, and hitting him with their weapons of choice. With the help of the gas station attendant I quickly locked all our doors, jumped into the back seat, ripped my daughters out of their car seats, threw them on the floor and laid on top of them. I kept peeking up to look out the window to see if Nate was coming, but the fight was going on in between Nate who was in the gas station and where we were in the car.

The men that held the man hostage made the man admit to stealing different things from each of their business , made him beg for his life and eventually let him stumble away blubbering like a baby.

After the fight a few of the men that had beaten the man explained what had happened to Nate.

This man had been stealing different things from many of our local business, the cops wouldn’t do anything about it so they had to take matters into their own hands. They apologized that we had to see it, but they explained that it was important to make an example out of this man so things like this wouldn’t happen all the time.

After the fight all of the men went back to their jobs, and we continued to run into them that day as we went about our errands. I was in shock that they could all just go back to work as if everything was normal but then it struck me that this is their normal. This is their justice system – If you do what you are supposed to be doing you will be fine. If you mess up and do something wrong you will pay.

As I have thought more about this form of justice over the years I have often thought about how thankful I am that the Lord does not deal with us in the same way. I am sure that I would not be around long if the Lord thought like that “O.K. Dani, you messed up. You are DONE!”

Understanding God’s grace is something that I have always struggled with. He has had to teach me so many times over the years that there is nothing that I can do to earn or deserve Him.

The other day I was having such a bad attitude . All I wanted to do was complain and make excuses for my behavior. I was refusing to call it what it was (sin), and instead I was telling myself ( and Nate poor guy) “I am mad because I am pregnant and cannot stop puking because it is 100 degrees in my house!” or “I am mad because the kids are grumpy because they have not slept well in a week because of the heat.” or “ I am mad because I am SO sick of all these bugs, and a toilet that does not flush and I have to look at a #2 every time I have to throw up!” or “Hormones!!! It is all the hormones fault!” This went on all day and by the time I got to church I had made myself miserable. What I needed was a spiritual spanking but God in His mercy decided to give me something else – GRACE.

There I was bad attitude and all with six cranky kids and getting ready to teach Sunday School when my friend shocked me by asking if I would like to sit in church. Now for you to understand what I HUGE deal sitting in church is to me I have to tell you that in almost four years of being in missions I could count on one hand all the times that I have actually been able to SIT in church. Usually I am busy teaching Sunday School and dealing with kids. Now don’t get me wrong, ministering to kids is not only my ministry, it is my joy. I absolutely love it and I would not trade it for anything in the world, but to be able to just sit and hear the Word in person is such a special treat for me.

As I entered into worship I was broken. I confessed my bad attitude and praise the Lord for blessing me when I SO did not deserve it. What a gracious God we serve.

“ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 1:3-4)