That's how this grace thing works...

Recently, I was in a car accident. Nothing too major and certainly not as scary as the accident Josh's wife went through.

No, this was just an example of my own carelessness. My mom told me to go get the oil changed in the car and gave me a coupon that marked down the cost to $22.99. As I was driving to the dealership, I thought "Wait a minute, do I still have that coupon?"

So I glanced around in the front of the car for it...right as the light turned red. I didn't see it in time to slow down and rear-ended the woman in front of me.

When I heard her taillight crack, I thought "Ohhhhhhh no. I'm dead! I am so dead!"

I left the car and, while we waited for the police to show up, I apologized a thousand times over to the other driver. Then, after the cops had pulled us off the road so as not to obstruct traffic, my dad arrived and I felt even worse. I apologized to him over and over again, saying "I'm never going to drive again. Never, never, never."

"Of course you are," he said. He then called my mom, told her how upset I was, and had her talk to me.

"I'm just glad you're OK!" she said. "I can replace a car--I can't replace you."

That floored me for the rest of the night. Even after calling up my good friend, who, after I told him what had happened, said the same sentiment, it still floored me. Even the woman I rear-ended came over after talking to the cops and said, "It's all right; these things happen." Astonishing, just astonishing.

The title of this post comes from the song "Roll Away Your Stone" by the British band Mumford & Sons. I bought their album not too long after the accident and that song, coupled with my circumstances, has really gotten to me thinking about grace and mercy.

A lot of Christian songs tend to focus on that. Y'know, "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound/That saved a wretch like me" and all the rest of it. But it seems to me when ministering to people, we don't seem to do that.

As Christians, we believe that God's grace extends to everyone through the death and resurrection of Jesus. He sees all we have done, all we do, and all we will do and He loves us in spite of our misgivings.

My parents still love me even though I cost us some money in car repairs. That kind of love, mercy and grace is truly amazing.