Recycling Grace
Table Talk
Setting the Table
You are welcome here. Come just as you are, bringing whatever is on your heart today. Take a few moments and allow yourself to just be. Take a couple deep breaths, grab yourself a cup of coffee, light a candle, do something that brings you comfort. Allow yourself to be present in this moment.
Consider the small moments of grace you have already received today—how are they quietly shaping the way you see yourself, the world, and the people around you?
“That's how it is with God's love
Once you've experienced it
You spread His love to everyone
You want to pass it on.”
- “Pass It On”, Kurt Kaiser
Matthew 7:7-8, 12
“Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened…In everything do to others as you would have them do to you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”
Food For Thought
I was just settling into my breakfast when I heard the all too familiar sound of the sanitation trucks coming down the road. It was Tuesday, and the lumbering clunkiness of the approaching truck sounded like an alarm. I had forgotten!
Our trash and recycling had not been moved out to the street! I ran to the window, catching sight of our vacant curb—no cans! And the truck was already approaching my neighbor’s house! To add to my dismay, my recycling bin was overflowing. It needed to go today! There was just no space for another week’s rubbish.
Despairingly, I watched as the crew drove past our empty curb to collect our other neighbor’s bins. “It’s too late!,’ I thought to myself, ‘they’ll never wait for me. They’ve already passed our house.” Then, I thought again of my overflowing recycling can.
With a deep breath, and the tiniest bit of hope in my heart, I ran out my front door in my bare feet to meet the man emptying my neighbor’s recycling. Sheepishly I asked, “If I get my recycling bin, will you wait for me?” He nodded and smiled. Still not convinced he actually heard me over the noise of the truck, I asked again, “If I go get my recycling, will you wait for me?” Again, he nodded, smiled, and gestured for me to go. I took off running down my driveway as fast as I could, my wet hair flailing, my bare feet pounding the pavement. Down to the cans I went!
I sped back up the drive, recycling in tow. As I raced to get my overflowing bin up to the curb in time, I just knew he wouldn’t be there anymore. I imagined myself running barefoot all the way down the street, chasing the truck as it disappeared over the hill, out of sight. But instead, when I arrived at the top of my driveway, there he was, still waiting for me.
Not only was the sanitation worker still there, but he had somehow gotten the truck driver to reverse back down the street to my house to meet us where we were. The man took my bin and emptied it. I thanked the recycling team profusely, as I put my hand on the man’s shoulder, “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”.
This whole exchange took all of two minutes, and yet it affected me deeply. In my mind, I fully expected that truck to keep on driving. I thought for sure they’d say, “Nope. You missed your chance this week, lady. You should have been on the ball and put your cans out like everybody else. Next week maybe you’ll do better.” At least an eye roll!
But there were no eye rolls. There was no critique. There was simply kindness.
On this day, I found myself running barefoot to plead for a mite of mercy and was met with a smile and an invitation to grace. The crew of two was accommodating and helpful to me—someone who admittedly did not have everything together.
I am human, after all. We’re all human, after all. And it is a gift to know that in our most bedraggled moments, there will be something of grace waiting patiently to meet us.
As small as this moment may seem, it was full of grace. And grace has a way of staying with you. It changes your heart. It can change how we feel about the world and about ourselves, and, in turn, how we choose to treat others.
That small act of kindness left me full of gratitude—and wanting to pass that grace along. It reminded me of the divine grace that holds our entire world: the grace that gives us opportunities to reset, to repent, to start over, to make things right, to be human, to do better—assuring us that we are loved through it all.
Maybe that is how grace is meant to work. We receive it, and then we pass it along. A kindness we receive becomes a kindness we offer. Someone gives us a second chance, and we become more willing to give one to someone else.
Maybe grace is a sacred gift that we can recycle. We take what we have received and put it back into the world, trusting that even the smallest act of mercy can keep moving from person to person—the whole world around.
As you move through your day today, look for opportunities to extend a little grace—to someone else or to yourself. Notice the moments when you could choose patience over frustration, compassion over judgment, or understanding over criticism. It doesn’t have to be a grand gesture; sometimes grace looks like giving someone a little extra time, offering a second chance, or simply being gentler with yourself.
This week, close out each day with a list of the ways you experienced moments of grace. Notice the small things: a kindness you didn’t expect, someone who gave you patience, a moment when you were offered another chance, or even a moment when you were able to offer yourself some compassion. At the end of the week, look back over your list and notice what stands out.
For a printable version of today's reflection Click Here!
Blessing
Gracious God,
Thank you for the small mercies that meet us in ordinary moments—
for the kindness we do not expect,
the patience we did not earn,
the second chances we thought we had missed.
Help us to receive grace when it is offered,
And then to pass it on when it is needed.
Amen.
A little Table Talk for your table...
When have you experienced unexpected grace or kindness from someone? What made that moment meaningful to you?
What might it look like for you to “recycle” some of the grace you have received—taking a kindness offered to you and passing it along to someone else?
Where do you notice God’s grace showing up in the ordinary moments of your life?
Try taking it to the Kids Table...
Can you think of a time when someone was kind to you when you made a mistake? What happened? How did it make you feel?
What is one kind thing someone has done for you that you could “recycle” by doing something kind for someone else?
Can you think of someone who might need a little extra kindness from you this week? What could you do?
Meet This WEek’s Writer...
Rev. Daryn Stylianopoulos is originally from North Carolina, but has called Boston, MA home for over twenty years. Daryn is an advocate for the marginalized and works against injustices in her community. She believes in creatively cultivating a spirit of cohesion, welcome, and healing in the world. A lover of art, music, gardening, and, most of all, family, she often looks to these for inspiration in her work and ministry. Daryn is on staff with American Baptist Home Mission Societies serving as Program Director for the Nurturing Children Initiative, and also serves as a Baptist pastor in the Boston area. She is a graduate of Wake Forest University and Boston University School of Theology.
To hear more from Rev. Daryn throughout the week, follow along on our Instagram!