Grace Relations

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There is One Race…the Human Race

No one of us is better than the other, and we are called to love one another and to treat one another as better than ourselves. If you are able to abide by the Golden Rule, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you miss the point. It’s challenging, because for much of human history man has been at odds with one another. This tendency towards conflict and bias is one we all struggle with and overcoming this tendency requires—in my opinion—grace.

The Need for Grace Relations

I believe grace relations are needed in order for healing to occur when it comes to the racial divide in America. Whether it be based on hurts caused by hatred, violence or bloodshed, grace heals. It invites empathy and gives us a context within which we can more openly learn about and understand the pain of others. Grace helps us overcome our differences on a personal level that reverberates outwards to our homes, our spheres of influence, and our communities. Grace then needs to become a foundational value when considering your legacy and the kind of world you hope to leave behind.

Grace Relations—How We can Make an Impact

We can’t control what other people in other places do, but we can seek to lead our families well and influence others toward grace and reconciliation. There is a great opportunity to have conversations with our children and grandchildren about the real issues, about the real and present dangers facing our nation and our world. We must mentor and inspire them to be “Ambassadors of Love”, Ambassadors of Peace”, and “Ambassadors of Grace”.

To the degree we can control anything, we can affect what happens in our own home, our own family, our own church, and our own community. We can be Dads and Moms, Grandfathers and Grandmothers that lead our own families well. How are you leading your family in this area of being “Ambassadors” of Love, of Peace, and of Grace? We can’t just sit back passively and watch our nation, our communities, our culture, and our families be destroyed by strife and hatred. As Edmund Burke said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

Beyond our families, we can provide leadership and influence within our own community and within our own Spheres of Influence—the businesses we lead, the churches we attend, the schools to which we send our children.

Speaking from personal experience, some of the leading pastors in our community (including my pastor) inspired their congregations, while business leaders rallied around the issue and led within their influence. Local political leaders (including a friend of mine who is a County Commissioner) and our local Police Chief and Sheriff oversaw and engaged with peaceful protestors. Many of them spoke on the issues of Racial Reconciliation and how we as a community can face the realities together, address the issues, and work with one another toward healing old wounds.

The community was brought together (instead of divided), race relations improved, and reconciliation is ongoing. All of this because business leaders, church leaders, government and law enforcement leaders decided to be proactive in leading well and using their platforms of influence.

Will you be that “Difference Maker” in your home, your family, your community and your Spheres of Influence?

Grace Relations within Our Sphere

If we truly seek racial reconciliation through grace and an end to the conflicts that divide us, we must start close to home, in our proverbial “Jerusalem”. Grace relations can impact our homes, our families, our businesses, schools and our communities—all of our Spheres of Influence. We need to honor that influence, and work towards healing through grace. This work, that we must all do, is so crucial to the future of our nation and our society within the context of our own spiritual health and legacy. You (and I) must choose, every day, to be the “Difference Makers” within our Spheres of Influence. I believe that if we each do our part—control and influence the things that we can influence—we can have a positive, healing and reconciling influence on our society. Living out the Golden Rule and being “Ambassadors of Grace”… starting with those closest to us, will hopefully spread grace relations out to our communities, our nation and our world!

2 Chronicles 7:14 says “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Will you join me in praying for a spiritual, moral, political, and economic revival throughout our land? Be an Ambassador of Peace and Reconciliation! Be an Ambassador of Grace!

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Founder & Chairman, Stewardship Legacy Coaching, LLC

Jeff has been actively involved with numerous ministries and charities, both local and national for over 30 years. Through his career/ministry, Jeff has assisted clients in gifting over $800 million…

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