I wasn’t sure what to do. I leaned into His grace and whispered a prayer, “Lord, is this a step away situation, or is this a stay in and stay close to You situation?”
Sometimes it’s hard to sort through gray places. Sometimes the resolve to hold onto what’s good and right and true comes with a sweaty grip on Jesus—He knows first-hand about the places where rules meet grace.
I’ve learned that we don’t have to walk away over gray moments. In fact, perhaps it’s in those moments we should actually step closer. Jesus’ willingness to come into our world—to even exist in this world—was a decision to step closer to the gray.
In the gray, He stayed.
He allowed a prostitute to wash His feet.
He dined with a tax collector.
He took a drink from the woman at the well, with whom no one else would be seen.
He stood with the woman about to be stoned.
He ministered to and broke bread with men who argued about who was the greatest.
Jesus didn’t write people off and walk away over gray moments. Each redeemed soul came out of a moment where He stepped in closer. A moment where He saw and changed their hearts. It was through the gray that He offered soul rescue.
May we not miss connection because of the uncomfortable. May we stay in the gray because we see and know and walk in the Light.
“And when they saw it, they all grumbled, ‘He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.’ And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, ‘Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost’” (Luke 19: 7-10).
