It doesn’t matter…

Grace is inclusiveness. No one gets left out at any time, for any cause, for any reason. But you can’t handle the truth of this, can you? It’s okay to admit that this is one of the most repugnant things you know about grace. Some just shouldn’t receive it, right?

It doesn’t matter. Honestly, this phrase has caused more angst to people than any other in the grace realm. Why? Obviously, it doesn’t matter. “But it does matter,” is the response of a person who can’t accept a gift, no matter how priceless, simply because their value system is askew.

Consider that a long time ago, in a realm far, far away, you and I occupied a place of complete and absolute peace and harmony, filled with an overwhelming, incomprehensible presence of love. We were accepted fully just as we were, but more importantly, accepted for “when” and “how” we would become.

The “when” aspect was our birth into the world at some point in time. Notice how our acceptance pre-dates time, meaning that when we arrived on this orb called earth, we arrived perfected in love. What occurred to us from that moment forward is the “how” aspect.

If we don’t know we’re loved and accepted, the strangest thing happens: We create a false reality to mask love and acceptance. This false reality becomes our earthly persona, a coat of armor which we wear to protect ourselves from the self-induced perception that we aren’t loved and accepted. Regrettably, this armor also becomes our prison since we find it so hard to believe an eternal truth when posited in an earthly existence.

As long as we allow the armor of our thoughts to dictate our actions we strengthen the idea that we are not loved, or that others aren’t loved as much as we are by our false identity. Judgement, personal and directed at others, is our battle weapon to secure the thoughts which continually tell us we’ve been abandoned.

How we look; how old; how smart; how rich; how poor; how tall; how short; how thin; how fat; how much we own; how much we don’t like people; how much we like certain people more than others; plus, myriad other nuances swirl around us living this life within the armor of self-deception. Yet, it doesn’t matter.

Let me provide an example. The other day, I happened to see two individuals attack one another about racism. Each held the extreme position for and against it in a particular situation. The more I watched, the greater my agitation for the dialogue increased. I don’t hold any of their positions. My agitation rose because both of these people were of the same ethnicity and each was determined to enforce their belief upon the other, and all of those watching, without stopping to consider that a false identity of being unaccepted and loved is the genesis of this entire issue. Whatever their particular point was in this matter, ultimately, they both were correct: each lived from the deception of being unaccepted and unloved. They each had developed a deep reliance in living from the opinion of how others saw them rather than the truth of who they were.

Now I know that some, if not most, of you will take exception to this example and might feel that the best thing for me is to roast my hide for exposing this condition. However, first recognize that I wouldn’t be writing this way if I didn’t believe it so much that I’m able to live it. Second, I’m not taking a position either way, simple because it doesn’t matter. Each of us should reach a point in our life where we’re free to let the armor of our false identity fall to the ground and expose the truth of love and acceptance which resides within and is us. True, many will not like what they see, their helmet of saving face obscures their vision to reality. Grace.

If you’re issues in life don’t matter because you are loved and accepted by God, why should they matter to me to a greater degree? Don’t feel that I don’t care about you simply because I don’t jump on your self-deceptive parade of angst. I demonstrate my care by not adding to your circus. That might not appear to be what you think you need, however, until you understand of how greatly you are loved and accepted, your actions, which are trying to convince me otherwise, well…it doesn’t matter.