“What’s your favorite song we sing at church?” My wife was teaching some children in a Sunday morning Bible class. Victoria (an aptly named little queen of a four year old) hollered “Gimme a break” as she belted out the well known hymn, “Gimme a break, gimme a break, break me off a piece of that Kit-Kat bar!” When encouraged to select another tune she sang her own version of the second verse of “Jesus Loves the Little Children” which tells how Jesus died for all the children of the world. In Victoria’s rendition, “Jesus diapered all the children of the world.”

    Now that’s a real servant-hearted friend who practices grace! I have two children in my small world, and it was all I could do to diaper them the few times their mommy wasn’t available! Great rejoicing rang through our home the first time we went to Wal-Mart and diapers were not on our list! Do you suppose that’s what Jesus meant when He said, “Let the little children come to Me?” Was He really saying, “I’ll serve them and you in ways that you could never repay”? If so, that’s real grace!

    Rightly defined, grace is “God’s unmerited love and favor toward sinners, the divine gift that brings about contrition, penitence, repentance, and the works of obedience in response to forgiveness.” A wordy definition like that doesn’t excite me all that much. That’s why grace is best understood when practiced and applied, not defined in the abstract. Maybe that’s why Jesus, as far as we know, never even spoke the word, but told many a grace-filled story and did many graceful things (like healing a leper, washing dirty feet, feeding hungry people, and diapering all the children of the world).

He’s no longer struggling with sin, he’s grappling with grace.

    One of my close friends is suffering guilt over mistakes he made last year. Poor choices cost him the respect of his wife and kids, fumbles that he believes led to one of his sons getting involved with some pretty dangerous stuff. My friend’s problem is not that he doesn’t know he sinned. His struggle is accepting the grace of God now that he has repented of his sin. He’s no longer struggling with sin, he’s grappling with grace. He can’t give himself a break!

    Mike Saylors is a friend who died of AIDS. Among the many differences between Mike and me, is that when he sang, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me he really believed that he was a wretch. And as amazing as it sounds, God gave him a break. Did he deserve it? No more than me. Did he earn it? No more than anyone possibly could.

    Maybe most of us think we’re a wretch. Yet I think faithful Christians who have been in the field all day working hard in the vineyard of the Lord (see Matthew 20) tend to compare themselves to others. Perhaps we don’t think we’re a wretch when we contrast ourselves with a homosexual, cheating husband, alcoholic, bankrupt failure, or the co-worker with whom we have a doctrinal disagreement. That’s why it’s hard to take when some guy works one hour and gets paid the same as me. I want to ask God, “Who are you to be giving out those kind of breaks?”

    But the truth is, just like the workers in the vineyard, we don’t earn a wage. We are given a break from a grace-engrossed-gift-giving God. I’m glad He gives all who ask a break. He diapers all the children of the world. He wipes the tears of sin from the face of a husband who has lost his trust. And He gives the wife trust again. He holds the frail hand of the bed ridden friend dying with AIDS, liable to catch anything except a break. He even gives a break to those foolish enough to think they don’t need one. That’s why we call Him God. That’s why I’m inclined to agree with Victoria. “Gimme a break, gimme a break...” What other song sounds as sweet?