And the Winner Is: Grace!

My NCAA basketball brackets were shot the minute that Harvard won in the opening round!

And it didn't get any better when Florida Gulf-Coast University made a run deep into the tournament.

And why the heck is it that Notre Dame is always the Non-Fightin' Irish when we get to the post-season?  (And what was with those awful uniforms that Nike designed for ND?)

Well, at any rate, there is a winner to declare...even ahead of this next weekend's Final Four games.  And the winner is: Grace!  Hands down.  Every time.

Yup, this is gonna be a religious-type post.  About grace.  About how the unmerited favor and forgiveness of our Creater trumps anything else that will ever happen to us.  (And just to lay my cards and my argument on the table, no substitutionary sacrifice is needed to satisfy the honor or perfection of the Creator in my view of Grace.  The Creator acts gracefully because the Creator is graceful.  That's all.)

I read this somewhere, and I like the image it creates: "God spreads grace like a four-year old spreads peanut butter.  All over the place."

Of course, what we want to hear is that everything will be OK.  That we just need to have faith.  And it will all work out for the best.  Except everything will not be OK.  And whatever faith you hold to, not everything is going to work out for the best.

Of course, what we want to hear is that everything will get better.  But the truth is that everything will not get better.  Some things will get bad.  Very bad.

Perhaps instead of what we want to hear, we should hear something like this...something that comes closer to the real lives we live than the fairy-tale lives some platitudes want us to believe we will live:
~When life is good...and when it is not, God spreads grace like a four-year old spreads peanut butter.  All over the place.
~When things go our way...and when they do not, God spreads grace like a four-year old spreads peanut butter.  All over the place.
~When we are hemmed in by troubles...and when we are not, God spreads grace like a four-year old spreads grace.  All over the place.
~When sin is involved...and when it is not, God spreads grace like a four-year old spreads peanut butter.  All over the place.

Does that still sound too much un-like the kind of life you experience?

Let me try one more thing.  Here is a quote from author Brennan Manning:

"My life is a witness to vulgar grace — a grace that amazes as it offends. A grace that pays the eager beaver who works all day long the same wage as the grinning drunk who shows up at ten till five. A grace that hikes up the robe and runs breakneck toward the prodigal reeking of sin and wraps him up and decides to throw a party, no ifs, ands, or buts. A grace that raises bloodshot eyes to a dying thief’s request — 'Please, remember me' — and assures him, 'You bet!'


"This vulgar grace…works without asking anything of us. It’s not cheap. It’s free…Grace is sufficient even though we huff and puff with all our might to try and find something or someone that it cannot cover. Grace is enough…Yes, all is grace. It is enough. And it’s beautiful."

So yeah, why not go with "Grace Trumps Karma," and "God spreads grace like a four-year old spreads peanut butter.  All over the place!"