Hi! It’s been awhile..I’m sure all 3 of you missed me (Hi mom)…haha! Anyway, things have finally got back to semi-normal around our house. Zack never really stopped working. I finally am back to school, although we are 100% virtual for now; it’s nice to have a routine again.
Being a teacher during this time is a wild ride. Things change at the drop of a hat, so lesson plans and schedules are constantly rewritten and thrown away. I’m not lying when I say I cried every night the first week of school. It’s hard. It’s stressful. And that leads me right into the topic for this post: grace.
I have seen so many posts on Instagram and Facebook about giving teachers grace during this time, and it drives me nuts! I was telling Zack about it and he said, “Why is that a bad thing to say?” I asked him how he defines grace and his answer was, “I don’t really know how to put it into words.” I explained my definition and he was quiet. He said, “I have never thought of it that way. That’s pretty cool.”
I was kind of befuddled because I had never really given much thought to how someone else might define grace. So me being me looks up grace in Merriam-Webster. It’s defined as “a special favor.”
Y’all, GRACE IS SO MUCH MORE.
So let me take you back to one of my favorite chapels at Hannibal-LaGrange University with Dr. Tom Hufty. He was a professor, among many other things, at HLG (and I will forever wish that I could have had the opportunity to be his student), but left to pastor a church in Illinois. For this particular message, Dr. Hufty shared one of his most powerful lessons he taught to one of his youth ministry classes. He explained to us that his class was having a hard time truly understanding grace. For their final exam, Dr. Hufty allowed a few minutes in class to review. He said that he started spewing out facts to the students that were only mentioned in the book. I can remember him saying he could see panic starting to set in with some of the students (I started sweating from sympathy anxiety). He then said that he passed out the tests, face down, to each student. He instructed them not to turn over the test until he said they could begin.
Now guys, here is where the goosebumps strike. Dr. Hufty told us that he had filled out every single answer for each of the students. He had even written their names on the test. He told us that he looked at his class and asked: how many of them felt they were prepared after the review? How many of them did anything to deserve all of the answers? Dr. Hufty told the students that they would all be receiving an “A” on their final, and that they had all just experienced grace. They did nothing to deserve the answers. The preparation they did not help them in their final grade. It was given to them. That is grace.
Grace is not just a special favor. It’s being given something you did nothing to deserve. It’s being knocked on your butt by how powerful someone’s love is for you. Grace is Jesus. He hung on that cross for everyone on this planet. He bled, knowing that we are sinners and so unworthy of such perfect love. Forgiveness should not touch us. But He gave, and continues to give it to us anyway. Grace.
Grace is a big deal to me. It’s a very special thing. It’s not easy. It’s heavy. And at it’s roots, grace is the most beautiful act. But here’s the thing, you can’t give grace if someone deserves some leeway. I’m a teacher. I know we are all out here working our tails off to make this year the best we can for our students (virtually, in person, and hybrid). We DESERVE some love, patience, and kindness, just as your students do, because not a single one of us signed up for this.