When I think about a movement, I think about people coming together because they believe in something bigger than themselves. A movement can be political, social, artistic, or spiritual, but at the centre of every true movement is a message that people are willing to carry. Martin Luther King Jr. carried a message of justice, equality, and unity during the fight against racism in America. Other people throughout history have also stood up against oppression, violence, and injustice. But as I think about all these movements, one question stays with me: what about the movement of grace?

The movement of grace did not begin yesterday. It began thousands of years ago, and many people have carried it forward in different ways. People like Mother Teresa showed grace through service, compassion, and love for those who were often forgotten. But the clearest picture of grace is found in Jesus. The Bible tells us about a Saviour who would come, love us, restore us, and make all things new. When I read the New Testament, I see that Jesus did not only teach grace; he lived it. One chapter that really speaks to me is Luke chapter 15.

Luke 15 begins with tax collectors and sinners gathering around Jesus to listen to him. The Pharisees and teachers of the law were not happy about this. They complained and said, “This man welcomes sinners, and eats with them.” Every time I read that, I think about how many times we still act like the Pharisees today. We say we want people to be saved, but sometimes we do not want to be close to the people who need saving. We pray for people, but we also judge them. We talk about love, but we keep our distance. And I have to ask myself honestly: where is grace in that?

Jesus responded to their complaints by telling three parables: the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. In the first story, a shepherd leaves the ninety-nine sheep to go after the one that is lost. That one sheep mattered enough for the shepherd to search for it. Then Jesus tells the story of a woman who loses one of her ten coins and searches carefully until she finds it. Finally, he tells the story of the son who takes his inheritance, wastes everything, and ends up with nothing. When that son finally comes back home, his father does not reject him or remind him of every mistake he made. Instead, he runs to him, embraces him, celebrates him, and restores him as his son. That is grace.

What I love about Luke 15 is that Jesus shows us how God sees the lost. He does not see them as people to throw away. He sees them as people worth searching for, welcoming, and restoring. That makes me think about my own life. How many times has God given me another chance when I did not deserve it? How many times has he forgiven me before I even knew how to ask properly? How many times has he brought me back when I was lost, confused, proud, or far from him? When I think about that, I cannot pretend that grace is only something I receive. It is also something I must learn to give.

This is where it becomes personal for me. It is easy to talk about grace in church. It is easy to sing about it, preach about it, and say that God is good. But it is harder to show grace to someone who hurt me, disappointed me, misunderstood me, or broke my trust. I know I am guilty of holding on to pain and allowing pride to decide how I treat people. But Jesus keeps reminding me that if I have received grace, I cannot keep it to myself. I am learning that forgiveness is not always easy, but it is part of the life Jesus calls me to live. I am learning to lay down my pride, release grudges, and ask God to help the Jesus in me be stronger than the human nature in me.

The movement of grace is not just about words. It is about how we live, how we forgive, how we welcome, and how we treat people when they fall. The apology I am waiting for may never come, but that does not change who Jesus has called me to be. If he loved me before I deserved it, then I must ask myself how I can show that same love to others. How can I speak about grace if I refuse to forgive? How can I tell people about the love of Jesus if I cannot show love to the person next to me? Grace is a gift I did not earn, yet God gave it to me freely through Jesus. So now, the movement of grace must continue through me. It must be seen in the way I forgive, the way I love, the way I welcome the lost, and the way I choose mercy over judgment. If grace found me, restored me, and gave me another chance, then I want my life to help someone else experience that same grace too.

Prostrating before God and letting go everything is one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had in worship. When we seek God with all our hearts, do we go down on our knees; lay flat on our stomachs or do we sit on comfortable beds, sit on cushioned seats (not that anything is wrong with them)? If you have never had the experiences of lowering yourself like a dog, then I suggest you should try sometime. In the Old Testament (OT), we are told stories of people like Esther, Daniel, Ezekiel, David and many others, who took off their clothes and wore torn sack clothes, to go before God. This was in situations beyond their control, and they went to seek for his intervention. I was fascinated with David, who after understanding the full impact of his sin with Bethsheba, prostrated before God for three days without food or drink. When the child died, he got up and ate. PUZZLING. I was fascinated with him, because he laid flat on his stomach with his face to the floor, praying and I am guessing asking for God’s forgiveness for the atrocity he has committed, along with the crime of adultery. He should his hopelessness and inability to fix the damage he has done. God heard him and forgave him, at a price.

As I prostrated myself before God with the heaviness on my heart for the things I could not understand, tears from nowhere came rushing like a fountain that has been blocked for years. I was surprised to find tears and pain swelling up inside of me, because a few minutes earlier, I had been listening to music, dancing around my room and thinking over my life. The moment, I laid on my side, the tears started without me evoking them. When I turned flat on my stomach on the floor, not caring what was on that floor, they floods could not stop. I then realized what was happening. My inability to fix what was going on in my life, was being laid before God, because no one would know that this was the burden I was carrying, when all they ever see is smiles on my face.

I asked God to make my path straight, because I was confused in my walk. I was lost and feeling alone in dealing with my relationships in my personal life. In all honesty, I just wanted to give up everything and cut everyone out of my life, especially when it comes to the man I love. As I laid there before God pouring out my heart to him, God reminded me that he is also hurting and lost just as I am. I really didn’t want to hear it, because I have been hurt so many times and have forgiven so many times. When God reminded me over and over that he was also hurting, that made me realized that he too is struggling just like me. He has been telling me to give him time, but I didn’t understanding how much time, because I was thinking of all that we have been through and it looks like I was the only one who learnt much from our struggles.

I told God that I won’t stop prostrating before him every day till he has given me an answer to what I need to do next. This man did not come into my life because I wanted him, but because he fulfilled a promised I made with God at the age of 18. After laying there for close to 30 minutes, I got up and took my Bible out. I have been reading through the book of Luke, and yesterday morning I read chapter 12. So after praying last night, I took out my Bible and opened chapter 13. As I read the chapter, Verse 6-9 stood out to me. Jesus told the parable of a fig tree that wasn’t bearing fruit after 3 years and the man wanted to cut it down. So he told the man who took care of it to cut it down, but the man said “Sir… leave it alone for one more year and I will dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.” This to me was my leading answer that I believe Jesus has given me. I felt like I was the man who owns the fig tree and wants to cut it down. Jesus however is telling me to give it one more year.

You might take it as a coincidence, but I take it as an answer because people in the Bible got their prayers answered. My next question was, ‘how will I go about this LORD? I need you to show me the right path to follow. I don’t want to mess up your plan with my emotions and feelings. Now that you have told me to wait, how am I supposed to wait without getting too impatient?’ God is the same yesterday in the OT and today and forevermore.