I have never really thought much about the words to the ol' song Amazing Grace. As a matter of fact until recently I have never really spent any time pondering grace at all. Suddenly the realization of my own inability to follow completely the most basic commands of love have come to light. All of the character traits written about in the bible for which there is no room in heaven apply to me: the liar, the adulterer, the double minded man, he who fails to care for the sick, the old, the impoverished, judging people from my standards without considering how God sees them . . . There I am. How is there room for me then in heaven?
And here is where grace becomes amazing. In the simple act of faith (which consequently I struggle with simply because I have so much – it's easy to have faith when you also have a back up plan) God loves us. He grants grace. He leaves room for growth, and discipline, for learning – to become less, to become content, to give more than we take, to love when we are not loved, to see people from the perspective of eternity through God's eyes and not from the perspective of our own expectations and standards. Even when we fail here – and we will fail – God loves us, grants us grace, and sets a place setting at his banquet table for us. This is amazing grace that I will go home and fail, and still I can have hope. Not that this is license to give up trying, but this is encouragement not to surrender to despair.
1 comment:
I would have to agree with your assessment of yourself. In light of what you have confessed, there is only one thing to do, to the cross with you! We are creatures worthy of death. "The soul that sins shall die", "The wages of sin is death".
Thanks be to God, who not only took our sin to the cross, but ourselves as well.
Rest in Peace,
Bob
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