Exercising Grace

We can’t help for growing old, but we sure can contribute to growing old gracefully.

Real life is often more stirring than fiction.  Well, at least that’s what I discovered about a week ago while I was out having Starbucks’ coffee with a friend.

We had been having a great time catching up and were on our second cup, when nature called.   As I entered the hallway to the bathroom I saw a disappointing sight.  A middle aged Asian woman was trying to turn the door handle on the Ladies’ room when all of a sudden the door flew open.  It was an elderly lady, albeit the grumpy old kind and she was full of insults for the apparently nice Asian woman.  The grumpy old lady started off with “You could have at least let me get out first.” Then, rest of the insults just sounded like one of Charlie Brown’s teachers: blah, blah, blah, blah….

After all that anger polluted the air, the grumpy old lady left the hallway.  Then something refreshing filled the air when the poor insulted Asian lady spoke.  In a matter of a fact way she hit me with this nugget of truth.  In broken English she said when she got older hopefully she wouldn’t be so grumpy, but wished she would GROW OLD GRACEFULLY.

No life better exhibited growing old gracefully than holocaust survivor and author of the book, The Hiding Place, Corrie Ten Boom.  She exercised grace up until the day she met her Maker at the age of 91.  Most definitely she is someone I would like to meet when I get to Heaven. 

This wonderful lady had every right to be a grumpy old lady, especially since she lost many family members who died in concentration camps.  Corrie is a great example of grace, in that she had lived through great acts of evil, yet through the power of God forgave even her own Nazi captor, who had contributed to her sister’s death. 

Too many times in anger or frustration, we have all lashed out on others when we feel we are being taken advantage of unfairly. However, in so doing our point is often totally lost because of the way we presented our argument.  

Grace allows us a better option than just leaving a mess behind.  Life, just like when you fry bacon, often makes a greasy mess and we must choose to put a lid on it and turn down the heat by using grace.  Or we can let it splatter by letting our anger out.  The choice is ours, but these days I’m keeping a lid handy.

Exercising grace is the best way I know how to counteract all the jerks in the world.

Swavel