Last night as my wife and I were walking to Kinko’s, a homeless young man was sitting on the sidewalk. He looked up and asked, “can you all spare some change for me?”
My policy is not to give money out to homeless persons. Too often it is abused, so many times it functions as an enabler for a destructive habit. I prefer to give the person food, help to a shelter, and a some conversation, even if only for a moment. This is what I did with the young man, who happened to be named Justin.
My wife and I went into Wahoo’s, bought a taco meal and a drink, and gave it to Justin. As we were getting a bit of his story from him, he expressed his thanks. I just mentioned that there was One who has helped us out (referring to Jesus…I should have just said the Name), and we only wanted to extend a bit of that to him.
He took it as a reference to karma. “Oh sure,” he joyfully said, “everyone needs a little karma.”
This was a wide open opportunity to explain the point of grace to him. It turned out to be an opportunity that I didn’t fully grasp (I’m afraid I’m a bit timid and often not very quick on my feet in situations like this.), for all I could manage was, “oh no, I’m not talking about karma. I’m talking about grace, something we don’t deserve. God changed our lives because of his grace, and I’m thankful He didn’t give us what we deserve.”
It was late and we needed to get home, so after a few more moments, we said our goodbyes and went on our way. I couldn’t help but reflect on the small divine opportunity, though. It was a poignant reminder to me that God has given my wife and I exactly what we don’t deserve, and it’s a good thing. I’m not just talking about a decent living, good relationships, and a meaningful job. I’m talking about the blessing of being adopted into His family through Christ in the first place.
If God operated by the law of karma, we’d get nothing but wrath and hell, for that is what we deserve. Far from being pointless groveling in the mud, this is simply a recognition that my wife and I were both, at one time, rebels in arms against God, and the wage such treason earns isn’t a happy eternity. We ran from Him, not to Him. Sure, we did good things, but due to the fact that we had quite a rap sheet account of breaking God’s law, this “resume” was spiritually meaningless to God as a used menstrual rag is to a courtroom judge.
Sometimes we both are tempted to think of ourselves more highly than we ought, but one quick comparison to the Ten Commandments cures us of all that. We fail miserably every day. While this has gotten better since we bent the knee to Christ, we still fall woefully short every day of the week. This isn’t just mere breaking of useless rules either; such a lifestyle leaves lives hurt and God’s creation marred. This was sobering…it still is sobering.
But God (the two most beautiful words in Scripture) lavished His love and grace upon us, forgiving our debt to Him and bringing us into His family. As I said earlier, thank God, not for karma, but for grace.
To those that are fellow adoptees, I hope this spurs you on to greater love and good deeds to your fellow human beings. For those that have not yet taken God’s offer of adoption, I hope and pray that this motivates you to grasp a hold of God’s offer while it still stands.
