Grace Upon Grace

Collection of thoughts that have been running havoc through my mind these last few weeks:

It'd be a benefitting practice to allow others to not have to know everything.

All the expectations we put on ourselves and others to just know it all is exhausting.

Allow others to be "amateur's" without striking a judgment call on their every move.

When we are invited into other peoples' lives via social media, it opens a new perspective and sheds some light into parts of their lives - but not the whole.

Never the whole.

Even for a person who is online all. the. time: you can never know them as fully as they know themselves (and more so, as fully as God sees and knows them).

With that regard, have grace on them, and on yourself.

Stop being a bully, stop being bullied.

This isn't to say we should put everything out there - from failed projects to arguments with your spouse - for the sake of being a "beacon of hope" to someone else who may be struggling with the same thing. There is a time and place for that kind effort to be put out in the world. But remember that it is not your job to be the savior of others. Consider if it's helping, and who it's helping (Because if it's not helping anyone, are the reasons for sharing it necessary?)

Use those moments of inspiration that strike to reach out to those you can - this doesn't mean you have to put this pressure on yourself (or read others' life styles that seem so deep and meaningful and inspiring to millions) as a call that you, too, must render to the world and sacrifice your energy, time and love to be a guide in many or specific areas that we walk through in this life.

Give yourself the space you need to discover what you love without the pull to share it online.

Show up for yourself and your people before you show up for strangers. Don't take this as me saying we shouldn't extend our reach beyond our circles - I full heartedly believe that.

I can say without a doubt that I would not be where I am today - mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and geographically - if people didn't reach out and step into my mess with me.

We need to be bold, so others can see they are worthy of more than whatever "cards" were handed to them.

We need to be strong, for ourselves and for those who can't find the strength to fight, let alone stand to look up at it.

We need to be kind, so others can see in the musk and dark, there is good in this life and (though I struggle to see it most days) all of humanity is not lost.

We need to communicate, and not just debate. People do not thrive off of negative interactions - and Lord knows there's enough of this going on. However, we also can't thrive when all we do is talk about the "fluff" (you know the topics: weather, clothes, my feelings about this and that). Get to the grit.

Something I wrote about a couple years ago was talking to others with grace (and a little bit of salt). To be like Christ, I think we aren't called to stop at the three words "I love you": we have to act on those words by following through on what we say we'll do to help. We need to confront people on their B.S. , on their hate, on their implicit biases.

It feels odd to end here, but here we are.