by Chara Teh
All of us begin our Christian lives by grace extended from God, through our faith (Ephesians 2:8-9). This grace is a gift – our salvation and the hope of His glory manifested in and through us.
With God, this grace allows us to have an intimate and personal relationship with Him. It is so easy to fall into routines and patterns, and ministry life is no exception to this. It truly takes discipline to develop our relationship continuously and consistently with the Lord. In the parable of the ten virgins, five of them had extra oil and five had just enough. Jesus urges us to make sure that we cultivate our oil so that we are ready when the Bridegroom comes. The question here is not simply if we have oil, but more in relation to whether we are ready in and out of season.
With the people around us, grace builds a bridge for us to look past our differences. Each of us are shaped by our experiences and culture. This is true even with those closest to us, our immediate family. As my siblings and I were growing up, my mother had to moderate many of our squabbles. She would often say to us, “If you could only have just a little bit more grace for each other…”. It certainly would have resolved many of our fights. Now that we are older, grace allows us to broaden our perspectives through our differences.
With a foreign culture, grace opens the way for us to love and reach beyond what we know. It is incredibly humbling to be embraced by a foreign culture, especially when it is in the context of long-term placement. Whether it is missions, ministry, or even in the secular, grace certainly makes the acclimatisation process more pleasant.
Papuan culture places much importance on the family name. Family names represent authority, territory, even reputation.
With grace extended between our ministry, (Love Papua), and the indigenous Papuans, we are able to touch each other’s lives. Where language fails us, we communicate love through action.
A question I often ask myself is this – “Does Grace still amaze me?”
Grace is not just the undeserved favour of our salvation, but the basis on which relationships should be built on. If life were lived in the awareness of grace, would not gratitude and joy be so much more abundant?
