Faces in Need of Grace…
He struggles with memories of a sin committed in college… She feels guilty about an abortion… He is scared when Mom and Dad fight… She has a doctor’s appointment this week about a lump she discovered… He wishes he could summon courage enough to ask a girl out on a date… She hopes no one discovers she is living with her boyfriend…
He doesn’t hate people of another race anymore, but feels guilty about things he said in the past… She keeps sinning but calls it “just a little harmless gossip” … He criticizes others for being judgmental but can’t see the log in his own eye… She had an affair seven years ago, her husband doesn’t know about, with a man who showed up to visit church this morning…
They feel guilty because the truth is neither one of them wanted their fourth child… She married her second husband on the rebound and thinks she made a mistake… He lost his temper last Thursday night and cussed his boss – then he lost his job… They have a special needs son who is twenty-five, and they wonder what he will do when they are gone… She is raising her great-grandchild… He found blood in his urine all last week but hasn’t told his wife… They had a fight on the way to church about her drinking too much last night at a party… She wants to leave her husband, who is cheating, but doesn’t know how she will support herself… He is in denial that his kids are troubled… She doesn’t know how to tell her husband that she has run up $25,000 in credit card debt he doesn’t know about…
His wife caught him looking at porn last night… No one knows that her father abused her... They just found out they were pregnant… Their teenage son was arrested this week… Their six-year-old daughter told them yesterday that she wanted to ask Jesus into her heart…
They just celebrated 45 years of marriage – 39 of them happy… He checked the obituaries this morning, didn’t find his name, and decided to come to church… She just finished a week of working two jobs, trying to raise two kids by herself, and was just asked to volunteer in the preschool ministry…
He fell off a ladder last week but doesn’t dare tell his wife it was because he fainted… She grew up in church but has never been able to shake her attraction to other women… She wonders why other children make fun of her red hair…
She is fourteen and just had sex for the first time last Friday… He is terrified to tell his parents he didn’t get into med school… She got a call from her mother this morning, blessing her out for not checking on her… He is wondering if he can pop the question this afternoon after their picnic in the park…
He hopes no one sees the bruise on his cheek, put there by his Dad… She is hungover from the party she went to last night… They are heartbroken because the pregnancy test came back negative again…
She is angry because last week, her husband told her he was being deployed for the third time this year… His wife died five years ago, and he still misses her… She wonders if she turned the stove off and then wonders if dementia is setting in…
They worry their child still isn’t potty-trained… He has $10,000 worth of bills due at his business and only $2,000 in the bank… They haven’t heard from their oldest son in thirteen months and pray tonight is the night he calls….
She is wondering if she is good enough to be baptized… He is screwing up the courage to ask the pretty woman in the singles group out to lunch… He feels guilty because he volunteered to help out on a church project yesterday and forgot to show up…
He wondered what beer tastes like and snuck a bottle of his Dad’s Coors Light out of the refrigerator last night… She doesn’t like to fly and is nervous about her upcoming business trip… He has a PET scan this week and is scared about what the results will be.
The ghosts of her childhood haunt her nightmares every night… He is frustrated that his employees don’t seem to get it… He has questions about faith that the preacher never seems to answer in his sermons…
Just faces at church. Just people needing a place of grace.