Amazing Grace

 I recently had the opportunity to watch, up close, a supurb salesman at work in a donation generating setting. He approached people with open and friendly body language, engaged them by looking them in the eyes, held them captive with his message, and before they knew it they were enveloped in his mission, doing the opposite of what they intended when they first laid eyes on him.  But not only that, and this is the real kicker for me, they were happy about doing it. It is a true gift to be able to make people feel good about themselves for doing something they had no intention of doing three minutes earlier.  It definitely is not a skill I have been blessed with, and frankly, I don't think I would want it.  That kind of power over other people is frightening, and I don't think it would be good for me.

In this case, it was for a good cause, and the need was genuine -- a real "people helping people" situation.  But that got me to thinking about how many people go the other way and use their persuasive skills to benefit themselves instead of others.  We live in a me, me, me society, one which venerates self-absorption and vacuity.  It is all too easy to use power for self-benefit, to the detriment of everyone else.  Adam and Eve were the first to defy God's intentions for us, but they certainly weren't the last.

This all feels particularly pertinent to me right now, at Easter time.  In Luke 12:3 we read:

Therefore whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed from the housetops.

Ultimately, we are all sinners.  We all harbor unclean thoughts in one form or another.  We all engage in tricks and skullduggery and bad choices, whether it be something as innocuous as bragging about our children so we can take credit for our perfect parenting, or as perncious as spreading juicy gossip and possibly destroying someone's character, or as heinous as murdering someone, and everything in between.  Inconveniently for us, God doesn't distinguish better sins and worse sins.  A sin is a sin is a sin to him, and we are all sinners.  (Notice that is a period, not a comma.  There is no but.  Its a firm statement.)  And ultimately, our true intentions will out us.  Sooner or later, the facade of (self-)righteousness will fall away, and our true, ugly, sinful nature will be revealed.

There is only one human being who ever lived that held crowds of thousands in his hand (see Matthew 14 and 15,) and yet never turned away from what was right and good and faithful to God.  That man was Jesus, and he died on a cross in disgrace so that we could live in heaven with His father in glory that we have not earned as brothers and sisters, all children of the same heavenly Father.

This Easter Monday, I am humbled and shamed and enveloped by God's love for me, a sinner.  Created in the image of God, fallen by my own humanity, and saved by his amazing grace.

He Is Risen.  He is risen indeed.  Hallelujah!