I’ve been musing about these two words, “undeserved” and “under-served.” Inserting that one extra letter “r” helps define how we may choose to live. A lot of people imagine they deserve more. In fact, they feel sure they didn’t get everything they should have or could have. Of course, someone else must be to blame. From my view though, no matter where we live or what we do vocationally, we are blessed.
We are blessed because we live in undeserved grace. We have done little to earn our position in life, our family heritage, or our gifts and talents. These things were given to each of us by the grace of God. Sure, we’ve worked hard, but we’ve been free to do that because every morning God brings a new sunrise and every evening He gives us a chance to rest. He blesses us, not because we earned our way into His favor, but simply because He wants the best for us. He wants us to live well. It’s all undeserved and totally unearned.
So, putting that “r” back into the midst of the second word, we get “under-served.” Even though we live beneath an umbrella of unearned and undeserved grace, we still do not do all we can to be of service to others. We do not serve God with our whole hearts and minds. The funny thing is that some of us don’t even see a reason to do so. We don’t understand grace, so we are caught in the lie that we need to watch out for “Number One.” If we don’t, no one else will. Maybe it’s time for a breath of fresh air. Walk in the sunshine. Just for today, ponder what might change in your life right now if you truly embraced the gift of unearned grace.
Every person matters and every one we meet deserves love and kindness. We know that because we have that reminder in John 3:16 that God so loved the world, He gave His Son. Think again about things that came your way, brought joy, and blessed your life. Give the news media something good to report, something that uplifts the spirit and makes people smile. We always live in grace and that means we can each do more to make the world a better place.
