grace

Grace: Getting what we really don’t deserve.

Some time ago an online audio book company asked if I would like to download a contemporary book. The book looked interesting, so I took them up on their offer.

The book was “Sin Boldly.” by Cathleen Falsani. The title comes from a quote from Martin Luther, the great reformer from a long time ago. Luther did not mean that you could sin boldly without any retribution.

But without grace, religion will suffocate us.

Justice is getting what we deserve, grace is not.

When I deal with God I like, even expect a great outpouring of grace. When I am dealing with others, well not so much.

In my country the deciders came up with the idea of a new 45 million dollar jail to be built a half dozen miles from the court house. The jail is full they said, to do JUSTICE to wayward citizens we have to build a new bigger one.

Others say the jail is not nearly full and we put too many people in jail who would be better punished in other ways and that jail site is a long way from the court system. The doubters won this time.

A nearby county had a vote on a jail bond 8 times before it finally passed, and out deciders said they would try us again in May.

Does grace fit into any of this? We sure would not want those “criminals” to think they could find “grace” in the “justice” system, would we.

But God? A little more please.