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Good morning…

“Oh Sue, do not beat yourself up,” she wrote after yesterday’s relatable post, My Stupid Decision. “Paul Tripp writes we are never ‘grace graduates’ and how blessed we are for that never ending hope.”

We are never “grace graduates.” The phrase captures my curiosity. We never graduate from God’s School of Grace. Life continually offers us advanced classes as we learn that, in every and in all situations, there is nothing we can do to make God love us more and nothing we can do to make God love us less. So what should we say about this? If God is for us, no one can stand against us. And God is with us (Romans 8:31, ERV).

As we learn to receive God’s never ending grace, we learn to give God’s grace more freely to our selves and to each another. Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us (2 Corinthians 1:3b-4, MSG).

God has come alongside me after my messy mishap through conversations with caring friends, through sharing similar shame stories, and through bonding with me beautifully, “You are not alone in your imperfection.” Now I am more compassionate as I come alongside you who are going through your own hard times, offering to you the healing counsel God has given me. We are all students learning together from God’s School of Grace, and I am very happy to break the news. None of us will ever graduate from our basic human need for grace.

…Sue…