I wish I could explain how undeserving I am of God’s grace. Today as I looked out of the window in the office I was assigned to I stared at one of the nicest looking facilities in our community. Perhaps the only facility outside of the hospitals that have 24/7 movement….. That facility is the county jail and statistically speaking, I’m suppose to be housed there. However God doesn’t work according to the statistics.
Recently, by the grace of God I was hired to serve full-time as the Community Development Manager for Rockford Housing Authority. That is to say I serve people, good people, who live at and even below the poverty level. By the grace of God I serve a great deal of people, good people, who are under employed and not employed at all. By the grace of God I am privileged to serve a group of people, the majority good and highly intelligent people who are not educated from institutions of higher learning, some never graduated from high school, received a General Education Diploma (G.E.D.) and others never did anything in a structured learning environment beyond middle and even grade school, yet God picked me and placed me to serve this population of residents who help to make up our community. This has helped me to understand grace just a little bit better!
You see I’m no smarter than the next man. I’m not well connected.I’m not as educated as a lot of the good people that I serve. My resume isn’t all that polished or appealing and I’m pretty rough around the edges at times. In fact if you placed me in the middle of the population that I serve, I’ll fit right in. The only reason I stand out is because God called me by his grace to stand out. I’m thankful.
I’m an absolute product of grace. There is nothing that I have that I deserve…. God gave it all to me. He entreated me with responsibility that I don’t have the qualifications for. He has given me gifts I don’t deserve, things and thoughts that I don’t even have the capacity to ask for. Nevertheless, I am a product of grace!
But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course ad the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
Acts 20:24 (ESV)
I simply want to finish the work that God has entrusted to me for His own glory. Any accolades, awards. promotions and increases really are meaningless if God gets not all of the glory. I don’t I don’t deserve this position I’m in, I don’t deserve to preach the Gospel. I don’t deserve a loving and supportive wife, I don’t deserve the privilege of parenting two brilliant and beautiful daughters….. I have it all for not other reason than the grace of God. As I sit and write, I’m simply thankful that God extended to me the grace to serve Him. I understand grace a little better now!!!
Grace & Peace
Deryk Hayes's Blog 