For No Apparent Reason

February 28, 2011

If you don’t learn anything else about central NY, where I live, know this… We get lots of snow… Now I am not saying that we get more snow than anywhere else, I’m just pointing out the fact that we get a lot of snow… It’s a normal part of our every day life during the winter. Along with that realization is the fact that we are presented with a seemingly never ending winter task of removing the snow from our driveways. (believe me, when you have to do this multiple times a day, with a shovel it becomes a daunting task) Which leads me to the topic of this blog entry.

In the midst of one of our larger snow storms here I got bogged down in a super hectic schedule at work(Like its something new for all of us to get to busy). I believe I was away from my apartment more than I was there this particular span of days, but I managed to make it home for lunch one afternoon… Now I had put off shoveling my driveway because I was so busy and quite a bit of snow had accumulated. As I finished my lunch and prepared to leave I could hear a snow blower outside. I just assumed it was my neighbor cleaning off his driveway but upon opening the door to leave I realized my neighbor was snow blowing my driveway.

Now this, for most people that have a good relationship with their neighbor, would be just a nice neighborly gesture. But for me it kind of floored me. Aside from barely knowing his name, (we are on a first name basis only) I think I have seen him, in the last 6 months, about 6 times… I was floored by the fact that he was willing to do such a kind act for no apparent reason. I truly was struck by what he did. He offered to me something for nothing. As I reflected on what he was doing my immediate thought was, “What can I do to repay his kindness?”, I was perplexed to say the least.

This speak volumes about how we as humans respond to the gift of grace. We immediately try to come up with a way to repay God, as if when we fail to work hard enough to meet God’s standards he will withhold grace from us. This mentality goes contrary to what scripture teaches us. Scripture tells us, “The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”(Romans 6:20-23 ESV) The gift is free, meaning we don’t have to do anything for it except that we must receive it. We don’t need to work for it, as a matter of fact we can’t work for it. Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” We can not work to be saved, it is pride that tells us otherwise. Our pride makes it hard for us to receive grace.

So today I pray that God would remove my pride, so that I can receive God’s grace as it was meant to be received. As a gift, not because of what I have done, but because of the love that God has for me. What hinders you from receiving God’s grace today?