What we don't deserve

We live in a society today in which religion has little relevance, or at least none compared to where we were 50 years ago.

That being said, how do we, those of us in the replanting business, provide something that the nones - those who have no desire to be "religious" -- need and want? Good question.

The answer is (tada) grace. Nothing but grace. Grace 24 hours a day. Grace in all weather tires. Grace. That which separates Christianity from, well, everything.

Brennan Manning, in his last book before his unfortunate dead last year, said Grace was for the inmate who promised the parole board he'd be good, but he wasn't ... the dim-eyed who showed the path to others but kept losing his way ... The liar, the tramp, the thief; otherwise known as the priest, speaker, and author ... the disciple whose cheese slid off the cracker so many times he said 'to hell with cheese 'n' crackers ... the younger and elder prodigals who've come to their senses again, and again, and again, and again.

Grace is for us all.

I know of no one with all the answers wrapped up in a bundle, like Direct TV and AT&T. Partners in perfection, as it were. I've never known the person who could say and then do, constantly, always, every day.

I know only those persons who have failed, and those who will get up and try again. Grace, grace, constant grace. Grace for the mistake. Grace for the choice. Grace for the wrong notion, and the carefully thought out, premeditated wrong doing. Grace for the moment, and grace for the long-haul.

I'm a sinner. This notion that such and such isn't a sin, so therefore it is not a choice business is just a cop out of the highest order. We all fall short, Paul says. Therefore, we need something to boost us up to the level of the hand reaching down. That boost is grace. Sweet, sweet grace.

If there is some unknown reader out there stumbling on to this blog this morning, and they don't quite grasp what I'm talking about, let me be clear. Grace is the unmerited favor of God. It is given to sinners who don't deserve it. It is given ... period. It is used 156 times in the New Testament, often signifying goodwill and loving kindness. It is God giving us salvation, not based upon what we do, but upon what he did. And what he did was manifested in the man named Jesus.

I am not religious, either. I am forgiven. That is grace.

And that is the answer to what we give them. Those unknown (for the moment) persons out there that need something, but they are not quite sure what that something is. We give them grace. We don't judge, less we be judged, but instead, we forgive. Because we are that unknown people who need grace.