It happened exactly the way I didn't want it to happen.

The blogging that is...because well, obviously, I'm not a consistent blogger. It turns out that it is kind of overwhelming to write something that is interesting, deep, funny or all of the above. Added on to that is the pressure to write well. I thought about shutting down this operation completely but then I knew I would think of a zillion interesting, deep or funny things to say right after I did it.

The other day I spilled some flour in the cabinet. My housemate pointed it out to me nicely and I gladly cleaned it up. The next morning I came down stairs and found a note from my housemate that asked if I would clean the flour up in the cabinet. Apparently, I had missed a few places where the flour had spilled. So I go to look in the cabinet and find notes posted with arrows pointing to all the places where I missed cleaning. They were mostly on shelves above or below my line of sight. The night before I had only cleaned up what was right in front of me.

I don't mean to overspiritualize, but it made me think about some things. 1) We (here meaning me) hate to have our mistakes pointed out to us. 2) We (again, me) need others to help us see the bigger picture. and 3) Grace is the best thing about Christianity.

Even little paper arrows can cause my anger to flare and my accusing finger to fly. Even though I knew there was no maliciousness intended it still hurt. Hurt what exactly? I guess my pride.

My second reaction (after anger) at seeing those paper arrows was to laugh. There were LOTS of arrows. I had missed LOTS of the spilled flour. I couldn't help but laugh at how blind I must have been to have missed so much and how silly I was to think that the flour only spilled directly in front of me.

Grace is not easily defined for me. But I know it when it is given. There are not silly hard feelings to hold onto. There is no unspoken bitterness.
After cleaning ALL the flour up I continued to clean and organize the whole pantry. So this morning I woke up to a nice note from my housemate telling me how nice the pantry looks.

Living in community, specifically Christian community is an exercise in learning to show grace and receive it. I think we are doing pretty well.