They sound the same, but they seem so different. It’s almost like there are two kinds of grace. There’s the easy grace and the hard grace.
If you receive grace, it’s easy. Everybody loves that. If you give grace, it can be really hard. It feels entirely different! It doesn’t even seem like the same word!
We love receiving grace, like getting pulled over and getting a warning.
We also love when people give grace to others. Like the human interest stories at the end of the news. Like when a debt is forgiven, or a divorced couple reconciles.
But giving grace? It’s like a tooth extraction. We’d rather not, thank you. It’s counter-intuitive. We don’t want to do it. What??? Forgive that guy? After what he did? He doesn’t deserve it!
Ahem. That’s why it’s called grace.
You’ve received it. Now give it!