When we consider God’s grace, we typically think of blessing, humanly defined: the bank account is full, the church is responding incredibly well to my preaching and leadership, the children are excelling in school, music and sports, making us look like the ultimate “pastor family,” there are backslaps and smiles all around for our competent service of God’s church. And yes, all those and much more are good products of God’s loving kindness.
But there’s a side to grace we seldom celebrate, a side that seems a little dark to human reckoning. But God is light and in him there is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5). And in a day in which a demonic prosperity gospel is prospering worldwide, we desperately need to recover a theology of uncomfortable grace.
What is uncomfortable grace? It’s when God gives you what you need and not what you want. I wanted 25 years. God wanted three. Jonah wanted to hide in Tarshish. God wanted to heal Ninevah. In both cases, God got what he wanted. And it was mercy all, immense and free.