Connecting Point: On Your Mark

Picture yourself settled in your favorite living room chair watching one of the longest races at the Olympics. You have caught some of the athletes warming up. Now, they are in the blocks. They seem to stop breathing as the starter calls out, “Runner’s on your mark…Get set...” BANG, he starts them.

Do you realize our conversations with others can start off with a bang or a thud? If we start with a demand, a negative assertion, or assertions, what can we expect? Probably failure. We can do better. The Bible teaches us to be filled with grace. It is a challenge.

Across their writings in the Bible, Paul and John started with, “Grace and peace be with you” seventeen times. Think about that: seventeen different times. Catching my attention, I

became more impressed the more I studied it. Paul respected his audience, which was often dominated by Greeks, Romans and Jews, but also many other minorities are thrown in too, such as the cosmopolitan city of Ephesus. The citizens of Ephesus had a reputation for turning out to hear a speaker by the thousands, and Paul was a popular speaker. As a Jew Paul understood it was customary to bless people while greeting them with, “Shalom,” meaning peace. Likewise, he recognized the Greek audience using “charis,” which generally translates to “grace”. Paul was passionate about teaching that salvation is the free gift of God. Paul was liberating people to have faith in the afterlife.

Sometimes we start off conversations lacking grace or even peace. The standard of grace is a mark we could aim for. I’m reminded of Proverbs 27:14: “If anyone loudly blesses their neighbor early in the morning, it will be taken as a curse.” The word “loudly” infers a blessing that comes in an unpleasant manner which actually is not a blessing at all. To truly be graceful means we need to consider how we start, manage and end a conversation.

Paul also eludes that the Christian life is somewhat like an athlete in training, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize,” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).

Training as a follower of Jesus involves strict discipline and maintaining focus. Otherwise, we will go through life flailing. I would like to suggest to you that grace is a trait we train for. Maybe we can heed Paul’s wise counsel and fill our conversations with grace. Practicing restraint and clarity will become more natural, the more we train.

A runner who false starts in a competition is immediately eliminated We can be grateful that grace operates much differently. We get additional chances every day. Expecting a positive response from another person involves choosing grace on our part. Let us go with grace.