UNDESERVED FAVOR (Part I)

UNDESERVED FAVOR (Part I)

 Be prayerfully attentive to this gracious tale of a Christian student.

 I left work early so I could have some uninterrupted study time before the final exam in Youth Issues class.  When I arrived, everyone was doing last minute studying.  Our professor entered and said he would do a brief review prior to the test.  We completed the review, encountering some ‘new’ items that were not in our study guide.  When questioned, he said all of the information is in the textbook that we were responsible to read.  We really couldn’t argue with that.  Finally, it was time to take the test.

 “Kindly leave your exams face down on the desk until I tell you to start,” our professor instructed.  When we turned the tests over, every answer had already been filled in!  The bottom of the last page had this message: “This is the end of your Final Exam.  All the answers on your test are 100% correct.  You will receive an ‘A’ on the final exam.  The reason you passed the test is because the creator of the test took it for you.  All the work you did in preparation for this test did not help you to get an “A” grade.  You have just experienced GRACE.”

 Then, he queried each student individually, “What is your grade?  Do you deserve the grade you’ve received?  How much did your personal preparation for this exam help you to achieve your final grade?”

 Typically, I am not very emotional, but I had to fight back tears when answering those questions and thinking about how the ‘creator’ had aced my test for me.

 Our subsequent class discussion went something like this: “All semester, I have tried to teach all of you that you are recipients of grace.  I’ve tried to communicate that you need to demonstrate this free and unmerited gift while you are working with youth and with any others.  Never ever hammer people because they are not the enemy.  Help them by empathizing with them, and they will treasure, remember and reproduce GRACE!”

 We became totally transparent and talked about how some of us had studied for hours and others for just a few minutes, but all had received the same grade.  Our professor pointed us to a remarkable story of grace that had been shared by The Master. (Matthew 20:1-16) The owner of a vineyard hired people to work in his field and agreed to pay them a certain amount.  At various times throughout the day, he hired more workers under similar circumstances.  When payday arrived, each worker received the same amount of money.  After workers who had been hired early in the morning complained about unfairness, their employer simply responded, ‘Should you be angry because I am kind and gracious to everyone?’

 Our professor admitted that he had never done this kind of final exam before and likely would never do it again, but due to the judgmental content of some class discussions, he felt that we really needed to experience a practical lesson of grace.

 It’s a phenomenal story and a symbolic representation of the divine favor that The Creator affords us.  I love what the prolific Christian author, Max Lucado, shares about the amazing gift of GRACE, which is the simply the unmerited favor of God.  “Grace,” he says, “is God as heart surgeon, cracking open your chest, removing your heart – poisoned as it is with pride and pain – and replacing it with his own.”  Oh, how I love Jesus!  Hallelujah, what a Savior!

 Stay tuned…more to come tomorrow.

 Sisters and brothers, be continually blessed, and please (above all else) MAKE SURE YOU ARE READY TO MEET OUR SOON COMING KING. Maranatha!