A grace story to share?

Environments are powerful. They affect who we are and who we become. They can empower or shame. They can feed or starve. They can forgive or judge. They can heal or deepen wounds.

Jesus is a different kind of environment. He is where people are welcomed. Fed. Healed. Touched. Forgiven. Blessed. He is where people belong. Grow. Learn. Change. Thrive. Live! He is an environment of grace. It oozes from his love, seeping into our crevices that are dirty, embarrassing, and unattractive. It suffocates our unworthiness and breathes life into our spirit – the very spirit of God.

As the body of Christ, we become the dwelling place for God’s spirit. His temple. We are the environment for his grace to manifest within the world, to demonstrate God’s redemptive love. Our homes, our families, our conversations. Our very beings. All environments of grace.

What kind of environment are you for the people in your life?

This is the question I’m pressing into you with this series of grace stories. Environments of Grace: What do they look like? If we are to be people of grace, givers and receivers of grace, communities where brokenness meets grace face to face — we need to know what it looks like to live into this purpose.

I’m excited to share with you the grace stories I’ve received so far! If you think you’re interested in writing one, we would love to hear from you and learn from your personal experience of receiving {or not receiving} grace from a community or person or opportunity.

Please email me at lmmanry@gmail.com with a brief description of your grace-in-need situation and how God provided for you during this time. What gifts did he offer you through his people? In what ways did he nourish you through a person or community or family? Or maybe you didn’t meet grace when you needed it, and you’d like to share your story so you can help us better understand how to be an environment of grace to someone in a similar situation as you.

May our written stories come to life through the Living Word, as his redemptive reality changes our broken ones.