Today's daily lesson comes from James 4 verse 6:
But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
Grace is "free and unmerited gift". The sooner we discover this the sooner we put off all pride, judgement, account of wrongs, claim to rewards, enmity with neighbors, and hostility towards unbelievers and strangers.
Once we realize we are merely sinners saved by grace then humility begins to do its work. The word "humility" is the same word we get "human" from -- and also "humus". It is from the Latin humando meaning "burial" or "of the earth". To be humble is to remember that we are but dust, and that we will be buried, and that there is nothing we can do to change that. So in the end, only the grace of God can raise us up again.
Once we are humble enough to receive salvation as grace it is -- solely a gift from God, then our lesson today tells us God begins to give us "more grace." Among this might be the grace to forgive others as we've been forgiven, the grace to accept things we cannot change, the grace to love even when loving is hard and comes with a toll, the grace to say, "I may be wrong," and the grace to be kind to ourselves when we don't quite match up. These are more of the gifts God has for us if we're ever humble enough to receive them.
"All is grace," the country priest says at the end of his life "Diary of a Country Priest". All is grace -- including the free and unmerited joy of knowing it.
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