15 minutes of grace

Available for over a year

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Daniel Sibthorpe Good morning There seems to be a new trend in my area to charge for parking. Whilst reading the terms and conditions on one of those shiny new signs, I was struck by this sentence. “Free parking for 15 minutes, no grace thereafter”. The word 'grace' has many meanings, but for me, it’s something I associate more with church than car parks. In my own life, I often run out of grace. I reach the end of my patience with someone or a particular situation. I feel I’ve done enough, listened enough, empathized enough. Usually for me I become unkind and start dictating solutions. Perhaps because of this, I can feel that God is like this with me—of course there is a period of grace where I can do stupid things and still receive mercy and love but this is obviously limited and could run out at any minute. Charles Wesley, the great Methodist hymn writer, would not agree. Writing these amazing lines. He left his Father's throne above — so free, so infinite his grace — Emptied himself of all but love, and bled for Adam's helpless race. 'Tis mercy all, immense and free; for, O my God, it found out me! It is a wonderful thing to understand that there is no limit to God’s grace. So, today I pray that despite our mistakes and failures we would find that goodness and mercy are still following us, that we develop greater patience with ourselves and others and that we would dwell in the ‘grace filled’ house of the Lord forever. Amen