Stained Glass Masquerade

I was on my way to the car wash today and was listening to Casting Crown's Lifesong cd. One of the songs on the cd is called Stained Glass Masquerade and has a great message. As I was listening to it, it made me think of this great thing called grace. It is nothing that we can earn but freely given by God. The hang up I have is that we often don't have grace with other people which makes us hide inside ourselves. We don't want other people to know what is going on because what would they think. She wouldn't be my friend if she knew this, they won't want us around because my kid doesn't do this. There is a trap we find ourselves in because we are so worried about what other people will think - because we don't give each other grace.

The fact is, we all have issues and baggage and we all could benefit from grace. Why is it that we are SO afraid to show other's our weaknesses? We are so concerned with not being accepted because we don't accept others. The chorus of Stained Glass Masquerade goes like this:

Are we happy plastic people

Under shiny plastic steeples

With walls around our weakness

And smiles to hide our pain

But if the invitation's open

To every heart that has been broken

Maybe then we close the curtain

On our stained glass masquerade

As I was listening it just hit me like a ton of bricks. We totally put walls around our weaknesses because if someone saw they would think less of us. Then, we slap on a smile like everything is ok. It goes back to putting others first, I think. If I can truly put that other person before myself, maybe then I'll give a little grace. In turn, maybe my defenses will come down...just a thought!

If you struggle with opening up and giving grace, you need to read the book "Bo's Cafe." Three great guys, who will openly admit that they don't have it together and have messed up, wrote it. There is just a great message about finding grace and trusting people with yourself. Hard, I know, because how many of us have been let down by someone we've trusted. But people are human, which means we sin, which means we'll be let down. It's part of the ride. What we do in response is what will define us. Think back to the beginning. God made Adam and wanted him to have a partner. He then created Eve. We were designed to be in communion with other people. God wants us to rely on others, to both be called and call people to the carpet when something isn't right. That's what Jesus did. Check out the gospels if you haven't in a while.

I guess what I'm getting at in all this rambling is that God has given us grace. We have done nothing to deserve it, so why don't we pass it along? How hard is it to cut someone some slack, especially knowing that you're going to need the same thing in a hour. Once we begin to give grace, then maybe we tear down our walls and let someone in. When we truly let them in, we are living how God wanted us to...and how amazing would that be!?!