I think one thing that disappoints me deeply is that a lot of times, people - even Christians - are interested only in knowing others deeper if they like them.

Just a thought. And how it is that only when you first choose to put on an image that other people find acceptable, then they are interested in knowing you better.

I wish that wasn't the way the world worked, but at least in the church, couldn't it be a bit more different, as God would have it be? But that is the way humans tend to work... that we need to earn favour and respect from others.

I guess that's why, in the rare times that we do receive true grace from others, who sincerely want to know us for who we really are, and (to our shock) actually embrace and accept - not merely tolerate - us just the way we are...

I guess that's why the early Church made such a powerful impact in the Roman Empire - the salt was salty. A place where all men were considered equal, judged not by race, language or social status, but solely by the content of their characters.

No, even better than that. A place where those with ruined reputations, cracked characters, shredded souls and perverse pasts, can receive brand-new lives to start all over again. And again, and again and again. As surely as the sun rises and sets each day -  a cosmic burst of laughter sprinting across the bare blue skies. And the smiling rainbow of hope that shines after every sad shower. Grace that never ever fails, even though we daily fail.

"As far as the east is from the west

So far has He removed our transgressions from us"

Grace is like receiving snow in the middle of a hot desert - totally unexpected and against nature's law, but all the more shocking, sweeter and amazing when you actually receive it.

I have so much to grow in learning to both give and receive grace.