Grace and a Mechanical Bull

A week or so ago, I did something for the first time. I rode a mechanical bull…for a short time. I’m not sure if Tim McGraw set the standard or if the bull’s name was Fumanchu but if that’s true I at least busted the 2.7 second mark. On that day, we had an opportunity to thank a group of guys that have been working their fingers to the bone in the Burro Bueno camp. We spent the day together, laughing, having lunch, fishing, having coffee, riding across a lake on a pontoon boat at the foot of a volcano and taking Fumanchu for a spin. What a day.

While we put that part of the story on the back burner, I’ll mention that eight or nine months ago, I was honestly a bit tired of a path we were walking with some people who were trying to keep us off of some of the property we had purchased. Truth be told, I understand where they were coming from. We all struggle against our human tendencies at one time or another. But in my own humanness, I wanted to respond decisively, and likely divisively. I am so thankful that I didn’t. Between that time and now, we have begun to walk in relationship with some of those very people. On this day, a couple of them were with us as they have been helping repair and rebuild in the camp.

Mercy comes easy for me. I don’t always have to see justice for a perceived wrong. But Grace…proactively blessing someone that is not “deserving,” well, that is something else. The rub is, we have all received Grace upon Grace (John 1:16) and Grace is not a one-way street. It compels us and calls us to action.

I am happy to say that the property issue is nearing resolution. At the end of our very enjoyable day, one of the people who is on the opposite side of that issue, who we have a wonderful relationship with now, came to Jeanette and I and was profusely thankful. He expressed that he had never had a day like that in his life. Unmerited Grace is a powerful and wonderful thing. It is my prayer that the day we shared together will be more than just a great day. That it will be a small picture of unmerited Grace, the kind that we all have received, the kind that calls us to action.