Daily Grace (and why it matters)

In a span of 24 hours, I was stopped twice by police officers.

Being the chronic rule follower that I am, those two write-ups were decently defeating and ate at my brain. I deserved both of them, so when the traffic officer told me I could contest the first one in court, I almost laughed. No sir, I definitely went straight through that turn-only lane, but thanks for giving me options.

The second one was because I forgot to buy my ticket on the railway that morning and the officer got off at my stop with me. She told me that she would just give me a warning because I seemed genuine and polite. So while the vote of confidence and not giving me another ticket was appreciated, I was still completely embarrassed.

But amidst my shame and tears, I was able to hold onto the fact that one officer had shown me a shred of grace. I absolutely deserved to be fined for forgetting to buy my day pass, but the punishment didn't come.

Sound familiar?

Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 12:9 that Christ's grace is sufficient for us, for his power is made perfect in our weakness.

It is only through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross that we get let off of our crippling charges that sin tries to trap us in. There is no hit-or-miss with him–we are guaranteed to not receive a citation for everything that we've done. My list of sin is a lot longer than my list of traffic violations, but there is no record of my mess ups with Christ.

Psalm 103:12 says, "As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us."

That's something I could never be thankful enough for. Every day brings more times that I need grace, and I am called to show grace to everyone I interact with on a daily basis.

We don't deserve to be freely forgiven for all that we've done. But when Jesus died on the cross for us, it didn't matter what we deserved. All that matters now is how we choose to respond.

And I intend to do so with grace.

Linley McCord, a student at Texas A&M University, is currently serving as a joint Communications Intern for both the Baptist Standard and the Texas Baptists.