Yesterday I resurrected a post I had put on my FB page as the lockdown began three years ago. A friend wrote to say how it blessed her, so I thought I would put it here. My friend (and former neighbor) is married to a Navy pilot who piloted the Space Shuttle once, then was the mission commander twice, including on the last Space Shuttle flight. Of course, they live in Houston!

Here is the post she liked:

"When you know God's grace, you need to extend God's grace (preaching to myself).

There are even some Christians who may be very much saved by grace through faith but yet have a totally graceless existence. Sometimes no one has ever extended that person grace so they don't know what it looks like. They know that Jesus did something wonderful to allow them to live in Heaven forever but they would not recognize His grace if they stumbled over it. They just don't know . . .

Not surprisingly, these folks don't extend grace to us, mostly because they don't even extend grace to themselves. In truth, it really hurts to be them and we would not want to have to face what they go through in their lives. Much of it may be self-inflicted. They may be their own worst enemy.

Since we just don't know what is inside a person's heart, it may be a struggle for us, but we should strive to extend grace to all. We should probably try especially hard to extend grace to graceless individuals.

I know who I am in Christ so I find that when someone else needs to be smarter than me or more educated than me or more beautiful than me or more clever than me or more spiritual than me or . . . it does not cost me anything to just let them win the point. I am not their god and they usually are not asking my opinion on anything so it is not my job to show them that they will not find grace by believing themselves to be superior to other people. Besides, we all struggle with that competitive streak sometimes. Only God's grace can cure that struggle in us.

Just some thoughts as we move into a time of spending more of ourselves on social media than on in-person interactions. May we strive to be grace-filled with others."