Extending Grace and Igniting Hope

[Lorna Anne]

‘Grace is the last good word. “ I agree . Because Grace is the only answer,bringing the power of God in the community.

“Most people lead lives of quiet desperation. “,people are desperate for something better but through Jesus, He is our hope. Through Jesus, we can extend grace and ignite hope. Jesus is the only hope.

[Emma Hodges]

• Philip Yancey says that Grace is the last good word because it seems to be the only theological word that has not been tarnished in translation into the English language. Many of the words we use do not have the same meaning they were intended to when originally said. They have been skewed by culture and do not hold the same impact as the word grace does.
• When Thoreau said the statement “Most people lead lives of quiet desperation” he was referring to how many people struggle alone with things. So many people are hopeless and searching for meaning but yet do not reach out to others or speak about what is happening. People are searching for something to fill the void in their lives but yet do not know what that thing is and do not know how to accomplish it. I do not personally relate to this statement currently, although I can see at different points in my life where I would have personally related to this statement through loneliness.

[Kimberly]

I think that Yancey says grace is the last good word in the fact that the word grace still points to God. Many other characters have a modern definition now and can be lived out whether a person follows Jesus or not. But grace is still typically associated with God.

To me, quiet desperation describes how so many people are suffering in silence, or fighting a storm inside of themselves and don’t know how to stop it. They want to stop it but don’t know that Jesus is the only one who can heal them and bring them out of darkness.

[Jaylen Hodges]

I believe that most people do live quiet lives of desperation. Especially non-Christians. I think people make exceptions for the emptiness they feel; either the fill that (God-Shaped) empty hope with a job, family, money, friends, hobbies, food, etc. and perhaps they seem to fill that hole for a while, but at the end of the day they still are all missing something. I believe that thing is GOD! All people are God’s children and there is an undeniable urge to get to know Him whether we accept that or not. So in this way, those who don’t know Christ are living in quiet desperation.