Amazing Grace My favorite year of school was the 5th grade. Mrs. Walls, my teacher, was in total control of her classroom. If a child misbehaved, she took him out into the hall, scolded him and applied the board of education to the seat of learning. Yes, corporal punishment was still legal in those days. I made that trip to the hallway with her on at least one occasion. Most of the time, I didn’t need her scolding or paddling, her love for teaching and for me kept me in line. Her classroom was very structured. Every week, we would change seats. The person whose chair was in the front row would move it to the back, and everyone else would move forward one place. Though today, I have a preference for the back row, in those days, I liked the front row. If you excelled on an assignment, or was exceptionally well-behaved, she would let you be the black board monitor or the leader for the march to the lunch room. We learned, in her structured classroom, that the “good children” received the rewards, while the misbehaved were passed over. In the economy of God’s grace, it doesn’t work that way. I can’t earn his favor. Have you ever plunged into despair only to float in God’s grace? Did you feel the touch of an unseen hand encouraging you? After a year of vocal cord paralysis, God, by His grace, restored my voice on January 29, 1997. As the anniversary approaches, I am speechless. Not because I can’t talk, but because I’m overwhelmed by the touch of His nail-scarred hand on my soul. Jim L. Wilson, Fresh Start Devotionals (Fresno, CA: Willow City Press, 2009).

Accustomed to His Grace You can buy it in a grocery store, a drug store, the mall, from a street vendor, at a baseball game and in a school cafeteria. It comes in red, pink, brown, white, white with black specks, green, green with black specks, and orange. It is very cold, but sometimes people put hot stuff on top of it. It will make you fat if you eat too much, it can give you a headache if you eat it too fast, it will hurt your teeth if you have any cavities, it can clog your arteries of the old and promote blemishes on the young. You can get it by the gallon, quart, pint or cup. Some people use a cone to hold it, others put it on top of a banana, others melt it with milk and drink it through a straw. What is it? Ice Cream of course. I scream, you scream, we all scream for … we’ll you know the rest I’m sure. Words cannot adequately describe the taste, texture and feelings that correspond to eating an ice cream cone on a hot summer day. Some things are best left to experience. Grace? Yea, I can define it—God’s unmerited favor. I can distinguish it from mercy—grace is getting what you don’t deserve, mercy is not getting what you do deserve. I can sing about it—”Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound …” These exercises are routine and lifeless compared to walking in His grace … My own grace experiences leaves me wanting more. So I pray, Help me Lord to look past my needs to see my sins. So I’ll not be satisfied with the way things have been. Help me peel back my pride and admit I’m to blame. Let me know your forgiveness, release me from my shame. Let me Brush next to your glory, let me see your face. Fill me Lord, Anoint me Lord, drench me with your grace. So I can fight the good fight, and run the good race. Let me have your blessings, pour them out in this place. It is easy to become accustomed to God’s grace. Take time to thank God for His grace in your life. Is there someone you need to show God’s grace to? If so, then think of a way that you can be God’s grace in action. Jim L. Wilson, Fresh Start Devotionals (Fresno, CA: Willow City Press, 2009).