That’s the name of my good friend Phillip’s fiancee.  (Congrats, Phil!)

It’s also a concept I struggle with.  I find it hard to accept grace from other people, from God himself.  I’d much rather earn something than be given it for free.  Does anyone really want a free ride?  I have a hard time imagining anyone is really content to float through life completely provided for without having to work for anything.  (I know that’s not entirely the essence of grace…)

I also have a hard time letting things go – I end up being as hard on others as I am on myself when it comes to making mistakes.  This leaves no room for grace and find myself in too many personal situations where this aspect of my sinfulness strangulates the atmosphere.

Jesus, on the other hand…  Well, he’s welcoming.  The air in his presence is refreshing, the sense in rooms where he walks is amazingly graceful.  And if you’re big into making sure people get what they deserve you might not have liked to have been around Jesus as he walked the earth.  I know I might have had a hard time accepting his word to me if he’d taken me by the hand, saying, “Your sins are forgiven.”