grace and bologna

most people i'm sure are wondering how in the world one gets grace with bologna or bologna with grace. i mean, who thinks of oscar mayer when hearing about grace, be it God's grace or the grace of a dancer. and when you bite into a bologna sandwich made from your fridge at home i doubt you're thinking about Christ crucified or the way a ballerina shimmers on her toes across stage. it's not like you can order a side of grace when you are eating at a restaurant and you order a sandwich but i guess that is what i'm after. see, grace to me that you could order along with your swiss reuben or monte cristo is the grace i'm after. now i realize there are those that would argue pursuing such a grace cheapens it. grace that can be ordered at your local fast food restaurant or picked up off a shelf at the five and dime store in the strip mall by the gas station is cheap. and the good Lord knows i don't mean to devalue His grace or love or sacrifice, but i think sometimes we've made grace more about our convenience than about being accessible.

see, i think if we were totally honest sometimes grace that is revered and lovely is...well, easier for us to digest. it's simple and pure. we can take from it in orchestrated moments we call church. now don't get me wrong. i love church and find those moments that have been prepared and thought out and labored over in love can bring me to the throne of God and send me reeling with such awesomeness. and that's great because that is grace in motion, in action. it is by grace that we get to stroll right into the arms of God as he reclines in His easy chair taking great pleasure in us and enjoying our company. grace makes those orchestrated moments possible. without grace all the practice and talent in the world is well...pretty music, but not passion infused with a divine presence. without grace our praise does not become tangible, but put grace in there like hot salsa and you get something that lacks words.

quite honestly i think grace should be a verb really. grace by its very design was meant to be lived in all our moments, unorchestrated or orchestrated. grace is found in the beauty of musicians that have come together with one purpose and one heart using their talents to glorify God and usher us in to His heavenly living room. but grace is also found in moments when i least expect it. when someone offers a stranger a smile or maybe pays for someone's meal for absolutely no reason other than it is within their power to do so. grace is opening your home. grace is listening. grace is praying for someone because you can. grace is sharing your struggles and weaknesses as well as from your riches and strength. grace is about being honest about who you are...and being honest about what grace has made you and is making you.

grace is meant to follow us and fill us wherever we go. it's not something we come to or enjoy when the weather is right. it should be our very air. and grace is meant to not be cheap but it is meant to be accessible to everyone. and i guess i just long for grace that i can get out of the fridge just like i do bologna. i hunger for grace that i can eat that will fill me up, taste like chocolate or even broccoli when good clean healthy food is what i really need and am craving but don't even know it. i want grace that translates to real life, real people so when i'm waitressing and there's a chance to talk about my God and His grace it's doable, it connects, it makes sense, and well it seems not necessarily convenient but available to someone no matter what. see anyone that i allow to come into my home, can if they want (though i might cringe at their lack of manners) grab from my fridge. the reality is that people are grabbing from us all the time and we them. when you engage in relationships with people, grabbing happens. so what are people grabbing when they grab bologna from my fridge?

do they get a chance to rub up against the grace i have there or did i leave grace at the store (church) where it's better able to stay "fresh"?