You need to have Grace for YOURSELF | Pokemon Concierge Devotional

In the 2023 Netflix original, Pokemon Concierge, we meet a young lady named Haru who’s so concerned about doing all the right things on her first day of work, that she’s found herself stressed and struggling to actually grow. Today on Geek Devotions, Celeste is taking a look at this situation to discuss the importance of having grace for yourself.

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At the end of 2023, Netflix released a series called “Pokemon Concierge.” This new slice-of-life Pokemon adventure is about a young lady named Haru who starts a new job at a Pokemon hotel as a concierge. Throughout the first several episodes, the main plot is that she is doing her best to be the best at her new job. So much so that it is stressing her out.

She is SO very anxious to do a “Good job” and make the Pokemon feel welcome that she ends up making her job that much harder.Haru is so focused on not messing up that she does not have a lot of grace for herself. But when she decides to focus on one specific Pokemon, she finds she can do her job better. This leads to a wonderfully adorable adventure as she and Psyduck roam the island doing their work together. 

As Christians, there are definitely some absolutes that we need to keep in mind. Some obvious dos and don’ts. But because of Christ’s love and grace, we have the ability to mess up and have God’s grace present to catch us and rescue us. We can grow and learn naturally for our entire lives, bringing glory to God in the entirety of it.

Here’s the Kicker… We must accept when we’ve done something wrong, ask for forgiveness, and move on. We can’t live our lives in condemnation of ourselves. Now, we are not saying to not make things right if you have sinned or messed something up. We have consequences for our actions, and even forgiveness does not always get us out of having to handle this. But we have to remember we are not doing this alone. 

In 2nd Corinthians 3:4-6, it says this:

“Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”

This verse says that we can’t do it in our strength, but God is who makes us sufficient. And in my opinion, if God is the one who makes me sufficient even when I mess up, he will make it work for my good and his glory.