Once upon a time, not long ago, it was Grace’s first week back at college. She, of course, experienced the usual syllabus shock and social anxieties. But overall, her first few days back went smoothly. Interestingly, she noticed that a few people who were supposed to be in her classes weren’t actually in her classes.
“Only lazy people miss class during the first week of the semester,” Grace thought, rolling her eyes.
However, just two days after Grace had this haughty thought, she realized how hasty she’d been to think it. As she was reading for one of her classes later in the week, she began to feel sleepy. She tried to push through her tiredness but decided to lay her head down for just a moment. Actually, for several moments.
Waking up peacefully, Grace lifted her head and turned to check the time. Staring at her alarm clock in shock, she began to panic when she realized she was 20 minutes late for class.
Ashamed and embarrassed, Grace decided that it was too late to go to her class. Instead, she began to beat herself up for skipping her class during the first week of the semester. Then she wrote this post to try to make herself—and perhaps others—feel better.
In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I am Grace in this story. However, unlike my name, I’m often lacking in grace for myself and for others.
I Don’t Fit My Name
I actually believe that it’s more important to have grace for others than to have grace for ourselves. However, unfortunately, those who don’t give themselves grace often fail to give others grace. This is the definition of my life.
I feel bad for getting grades besides As. I feel bad for eating a piece of calorie-filled cake. I feel bad for skipping my quiet time.
My lack of grace for myself translates into a lack of grace for others.
I feel annoyed when my classmates are late for class (because I’m never late for class). I feel frustrated when my piano students make mistakes while they play (because I never make mistakes when I play the piano). I feel irritated by slow drivers on the interstate (because I always give 100% of my attention to driving). You get the idea.
My Pride and My Fall
If you can relate to how I feel, here’s something important to remember:
Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. (Proverbs 16:8 ESV)
Though we often say that pride goes before a fall, it’s actually a haughty spirit that goes before a fall. According to Merriam-Webster, the word proud is defined as “feeling or showing pride: such as having or displaying excessive self-esteem.” However, Merriam-Webster defines haughty as “blatantly and disdainfully proud: having or showing an attitude of superiority and contempt for people or things perceived to be inferior.” Thus, haughtiness is pride taken to the next level.
I knew that God was speaking to me when I had that “fall” during the first week of classes this semester. Although my name is Grace, I’m not very gracious—especially to others. Rather, I’m often haughty. And as the story in this post’s introduction showed, I fell.
Even though I’m not very gracious to others, God was very gracious to me in my story. He used a small thing—oversleeping and missing class—to teach me a priceless lesson. He didn’t use a huge fall to teach me that I need to be more gracious and less haughty.
Welcome to the Real World
Though some of us (like me) expect everyone and everything to be perfect, we forget that we’re living in the real world. In the real world, people oversleep and miss class (ahem). They drop classes, fail quizzes, and don’t prepare for presentations. They show up late to work, forget to clock in, and miss deadlines on occasion. They lose their temper with their kids, forget to buy milk at the store, and don’t turn in paperwork on time.
We’re human, and we make mistakes. Other people are human, and they make mistakes, too. Hence, grace.
So be gracious to yourself. But more importantly, be gracious to others. You never know when you’ll need some grace, too.
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