Grace makes people lovely

One thought has become clearer and clearer in my mind over the last few months, since it was planted there on a quiet Friday afternoon in early 2008. 

We become what we worship.  

The startling truth of this is writ large in our lives, in the fabric of our communities, the nature of our relationships, and the pages of our philosophy books and editorial columns.  It is not so much that if I look intently at your life for a couple of weeks I will be able to tell you what you believe.  I heard that at school and immediately realised its truth.  But it is far too weak to describe our condition or persuade anyone to actually look at their own lives with a view to seeing what is really there.

We become what we worship.  

There is a process going on in each and everyone's life.  A hardening, a slow gravitation, a tendency.  It is a process that we are slowly becoming more like our idols.  Whatever it is we place most value on, hold most dearly, and esteem most highly - that becomes our benchmark, or our moral standard.  And we begin to colour our view of the world, our perception of what is right and wrong, according to the requirements of this idol.  We become slaves to this ideal.  We are held captive in tight chains by the demands of our chosen deity.

We become what we worship.

Grace makes people lovely.  There is a group of people (they don't realise they are a group, but they are in my head!) who are marked by grace.  It defines them, they ooze it, it comes out of their mouths and is written on every line of the concern on their faces.  They are not just gracious, they are becoming grace.  They have dwelt long in the house of grace.  They smell of it.  And it is so, because they have lived long hours in the presence of Grace. 

And it is infectious.

If we become what we worship, then these people must hold dear Someone so lovely, so self-less, so appealing, so true and so tender as to be the very person so many of us are looking for.

I will continue to explore the truth of this statement in future posts, but i cannot get over just how lovely, and how loving, are the people of Grace.