There is always a lot of conversation about this little one syllabal, 5 letter word…..GRACE!  Some feel like it is often a buzzword for excusing bad behavior, other honestly can’t even comprehend it, and in the society we live in today I can understand why.  In this new book, One Way Love:  Inexhaustible Grace For An Exhausted World, the author, Tullian Tchividjian encourages us to take a closer look at grace through the lens of imperfection.  He encourages us to move away from the idea that God is looking for perfect people, who have to be perfect in order to accept or be worthy of his love.

In this book, Tullian takes us on a wild ride from the very beginning and exposes us to the reality that God never requires perfect, despite the pressure we might feel from the world to deliver it.  He challenges us to embrace God’s gift of grace not as something He expects us to earn, but instead as something that is freely given.

 

Tullian’s stories reach you were you are, and encourage you to grow.  Most of all they show us that God’s grace was there before you fell and it will be there when you are ready to get up.  He encourages us to accept the gift of God’s grace and to move away from the performance based grace that the world offers us.  He also does a great job of sharing through the lens of life, how we can be imperfect, but still perfectly loved by an amazing God who always keeps the light on for us.

 

Tullian grabbed me write away as he talks about performance based grace right out of the door.  There are so many people who struggle with the idea of being perfect or with getting everything together before they come to God, and that was NEVER God’s idea.

The stories in the book remind us that we can all grow, The book keeps pointing us back to the work of God and what it ultimately meant to people, even 2,000 years later.  God did the work, He meets us where we are, He loves us even when we fail, fall short, and He never turns His back on us.  Most of all, the book reminded me of the reality that God loves us so much, despite the things that we struggle with, He answers our calls, and that He always extends to us the most beautiful grace and mercy.

I am thankful for this book because of it’s simple and clear explanation of grace. Performance grace was never God’s intention for us, as much as we try to conclude and act like it is. God’s love goes beyond all of our faults, our fears, because it is and has always been based on His love, once so large and so great that none of us can completely conceive it.