Thank You

I’ve been hooked on a particular song lately. During my morning time with Jesus, I’ll play it seven or eight times in a row. Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01KObXjd0qM

Invariably while I’m listening to it, the Lord speaks to me about my favorite topic—grace. I never, ever get sick of that topic. I know that without it, I’d be toast, completely bankrupt of purpose, hope, or a future.

This past Sunday at church, our pastor was talking about people’s futile struggle to be good enough to earn God’s approval. He pointed out that we often live as though gaining salvation is free but keeping it has to be earned. Then he said, “My goal is not perfection; my goal is to live a life that says ‘Thank you’ to Jesus."

When our life is one big “Thank you,” it plays out in behaviors, attitudes and words that please God. But so often we get it backwards: we’re scared of grace, believing that too much of it will turn us into lazy, carnal Christians at best and drunken, sex-crazed murderers at worst. We’re so silly. That’s like saying that if one man rescued another from certain death, the saved man would waste no time in murdering his rescuer’s son or sleeping with his wife. The chances are far greater that he’d spend his life looking for ways to serve the first man in order to somehow say, “Thank you.”

Like the song says, “If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.” Happy is the man or woman who drowns eagerly.