Extending grace in life’s crucibles …

Dictionary.com defines the word “crucible” as “a severe, searching test or trial.”

We’ve all experienced crucibles in our lives, and there will be more to come. The important question is, how do we handle them?

As children of God, we’re to imitate God, and in the crucibles of our lives God has extended to us His grace! How are we doing at imitating extending grace to others during crucial times of tests and trials?

Let’s explore what extending grace to others looks like.

First, in the following story, an unidentified writer tells a tale that illustrates extending to others what has been extended to us …

A young employee secretly misappropriated several hundred dollars of his business firm’s money. When this action was discovered, the young man was told to report to the office of the senior partner of the firm.

As he walked up the stairs toward the administrative office, the young employee was heavy-hearted. He knew without a doubt he would lose his position with the firm. He also feared the possibility of legal action taken against him. Seemingly his whole world had collapsed.

Upon his arrival in the office of the senior executive the young man was questioned about the whole affair. He was asked if the allegations were true, and he answered in the affirmative. Then the executive surprisingly asked this question: “If I keep you in your present capacity, can I trust you in the future?”

The young worker brightened up and said, “Yes, sir, you surely can. I’ve learned my lesson.”

The executive responded, “I’m not going to press charges, and you can continue in your present responsibility.”

The employer concluded the conversation with his younger employee by saying, “I think you ought to know, however, that you are the second man in this firm who succumbed to temptation and was shown leniency. I was the first. What you have done, I did. The mercy you are receiving, I received. It is only the grace of God that can keep us both.”

Because we have been forgiven when we were unquestionably guilty, we can give grace to the guilty.

Do we?

More often than not, we want revenge on those who have wronged us, or at the very least, swift and full justice.

But grace?

In our hunger for revenge, we lose the value that our offenders really do have. This next story, reported in Bits & Pieces, is a great example of how grace enables us to respond in a way that does not devalue other human beings …

Many years ago a senior executive of the then Standard Oil Company made a wrong decision that cost the company more than $2 million. John D. Rockefeller was then running the firm. On the day the news leaked out most of the executives of the company were finding various ingenious ways of avoiding Mr. Rockefeller, lest his wrath descend on their heads.

There was one exception, however; he was Edward T. Bedford, a partner in the company. Bedford was scheduled to see Rockefeller that day and he kept the appointment, even though he was prepared to listen to a long harangue against the man who made the error in judgment.

When he entered the office the powerful head of the gigantic Standard Oil empire was bent over his desk, busily writing with a pencil on a pad of paper. Bedford stood silently, not wishing to interrupt. After a few minutes Rockefeller looked up.

“Oh, it’s you, Bedford,” he said calmly. “I suppose you’ve heard about our loss?”

Bedford said that he had.

“I’ve been thinking it over,” Rockefeller said, “and before I ask the man in to discuss the matter, I’ve been making some notes.”

Bedford later told the story this way:

“Across the top of the page was written, ‘Points in favor of Mr. _______.’ There followed a long list of the man’s virtues, including a brief description of how he had helped the company make the right decision on three separate occasions that had earned many times the cost of his recent error.

“I never forgot that lesson. In later years, whenever I was tempted to rip into anyone, I forced myself first to sit down and thoughtfully compile as long a list of good points as I possibly could. Invariably, by the time I finished my inventory, I would see the matter in its true perspective and keep my temper under control. There is no telling how many times this habit has prevented me from committing one of the costliest mistakes any executive can make — losing his temper. I commend it to anyone who must deal with people.”

Scripture tells us that all have sinned, we all are guilty before God, and yet He finds us to be worth redeeming! Is that how we respond to those who fail us?

“There will be no mercy for those who have not shown mercy to others. But if you have been merciful, God will be merciful when he judges you,” James 2:13.

Scotty