Facebook and Grace

“I like walking in the rain because no one knows I’m crying;” “The doughnut I got in my mailbox this morning made me happy;” “Fernando Rodney got lucky.” What do all of these phrases have in common? These are all statuses that I read yesterday from my friends on “facebook.” I love reading them and trying to figure out the meaning, or what’s going on in the lives of my computer buddies. There was one status however, that really caught my attention—“your grace is enough, your grace is enough, your grace is enough for me.” Even though I know this song, the repetition is what drew me; does saying it three times brings good luck? Does saying it three times make it more personally convicting? I think I know why my friend was saying this—why she needed to say it. Things happen sometime that either shake us up, or at best make us stop and think.

I believe that every now and then we need to remind ourselves about the bottom line—grace. It’s pretty elusive sometimes for something so simple. I was talking to someone who isn’t a believer and I threw out the word “grace” and she stopped me, not understanding what it really meant. I was surprised because she is a person who demonstrates grace every day to her family and friends, yet it is a foreign concept to her. I thought everyone understood that grace was favor that was totally undeserved.

Is grace enough? I had a conversation one day with someone who was working hard on forgiveness. She was trying with every ounce of her being to forgive someone who had committed a heinous act against her family. Her motive for forgiveness?—she believed she would never make it to heaven if she couldn’t forgive this person. It broke my heart to watch her struggle. Does grace cover those situations where it is nearly impossible to forgive someone?

Is grace enough? I had one of those great hot-tub conversations a few days ago. We were discussing the battles we all have going on inside of us with particular sins. Sometimes we lose the battle and give in—more often than we care to admit. During those times when we’ve given in, is grace still enough?

Or how about that Sunday school teacher that told my son that if you die with even just one un-confessed sin, you could be lost forever? Is grace enough to cover that un-confessed sin? I remember that the Israelites even had special sacrifices to cover those sins that they were clueless about. How about those? Does grace cover them?

I believe that grace does cover those things and John Donne covers it beautifully in his poem “Hymn to God the Father.” Whenever I take off in an airplane, I lean back in my seat and recite this in my head and heart—just in case . . .

Wilt Thou forgive that sin where I begun
Which was my sin though it were done before?
Wilt Thou forgive that sin through which I run
And do run still, though still I do deplore?
When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done,
For I have more.

Wilt Thou forgive that sin by which I won
Others to sin, and made my sin their door?
Wilt Thou forgive that sin which I did shun
A year or two, but wallowed in a score?
When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done,
For I have more.

I have a sin of fear that when I have spun
My last thread, I shall perish on that shore.
But, swear by Thyself that at my death Thy Son
Shall shine as He shines now and heretofore.
And having done that, Thou hast done,
I fear no more.