Vulgar Grace

I am not really known as being an early adopter, so this may seem a bit ridiculous to some...I recently discovered how to borrow books from the library via Amazon and load them onto my iPad using the Kindle app.  I saw a book I wanted to read and within minutes I was reading it...for free!

All at once the Hallelujah chorus played in my head and a feeling of dread came up....as in wow!!  so cool! and also, oh no...now I will always have a book going, which usually boils down to me getting 6 hours of sleep a night instead of the preferred 6.5.  Oh well.

Anyway, I borrowed a couple of books, the first one I read was All is Grace: A Ragamuffin Memoir by Brennan Manning.  I just love this excerpt:

My life is a witness to vulgar grace--a grace that amazes as it offends.  A grace that pays the eager beaver who works all day long the same wages as the grinning drunk who shows up at ten till five.  A grace that hikes up the robe and runs breakneck toward the prodigal reeking of sin and wraps him up and decides to throw a party no ifs, ands, or buts.  A grace that raises bloodshot eyes to a dying thief's request--"Please, remember me"--and assures him, "You bet!"  A grave that is the pleasure of the Father, fleshed out in the carpenter Messiah, Jesus the Christ, who left His Father's side not for heaven's sake but for our sakes, yours and mine.  This vulgar grace is indiscriminate compassion.  It works without asking of us.  Its not cheap.  Its free, and as such will always be a banana peel for the orthodox foot and a fairy tale for the grown-up sensibility.  Grace is sufficient even though we huff and puff with all our might to try to find something or someone it cannot cover.  Grace is enough.  He is enough.  Jesus is enough.

Happy Monday...let's make this a great week, resting in the knowledge that grace is enough!