Fail safe

"One of the greatest gifts we can offer another person is a safe place to fail." --John Lynch, Bill McNichol, and another author who I can't remember, TrueFaced

I've got a pristinely-perfect, unopened package of Oral-B Satin Floss in my desk drawer at school. I just opened the drawer to check the spelling of "Oral-B." I reread the above two sentences three times for errors before continuing to type . . .

Being me is often not a safe place for me to fail, let alone offering a truly safe place for others to fail.

"Without somehow destroying me in the process, how could God reveal himself in a way that would leave no room for doubt? If there were no room for doubt, there would be no room for me." -- Frederick Buechner

That struggle between grace and striving . . . where is the line drawn when a student has not practiced and comes ill-prepared to a lesson? Governments and education systems have not been built on grace. A man steals and is sent to jail for his crime. I was rewarded for my performance in school with plaques and praise and A's. I am unfamiliar with grace. And if I cannot recognize it, how can I begin to offer it to others?