‘EGR or Extra Grace Required,’ a concept I believe mooted by Rick Warren of Forty Days of Purpose fame. It is a symbol of thought and action in relational resilience—there’ll always be people who’ll test us to the enth degree, pushing to the extremes our tolerance.
The idea is to invest extra grace—an undeserved favour—to these people. It’s a gift freely given.
It’s important to recognise, of course, that the problem doesn’t really lie with “them” at all—it’s our lack of patience that is being tested. This is always the case no matter how “irritating” we find particular persons.
People who don’t exactly endear themselves with us may otherwise be seen as helping us mould and fashion our characters. In this way, they’re practise.
Anger needn’t be tamed so much as harnessed. When we’re tempted to react and get angry with these EGR people it would be better to turn that grating stimuli 180 degrees and use that extra drive in us to go beyond them, thrilling and surprising them in our Christ-like response.
The benefit, personally? Simple really; real Spiritual power is ours because of it. Nothing on earth can make us feel this way. We’re also very honouring in this approach. It’s a sure-fire winner all ways round.
EGR people – They’re practise. Truly, thank God for the opportunity!
© 2010 S. J. Wickham.
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