Cyberdoodling with Grace

When I was a kid I would doodle. I know that doesn't distinguish me as any sort of prodigy; pretty much all kids doodle (OK, I confess - I still doodle!). Nor have I ever been noticeably better than average as a doodler. But, like probably anyone who has ever doodled, I have occasionally experienced that thrill when a few lines and curves and squiggles suddenly align themselves into a really cool drawing.

Of course, the only time that ever happens is when you're doodling on the most tattered, dirty, useless scrap of something that might once have been paper. Try to reproduce your creation on a real surface, and it just won't work. On the throw-away fragment it's an amazing interpretation of a mako shark torpedoing through the mysterious deep. On good paper it vaguely resembles an old, almost shapeless house-slipper.

That's the beauty of the blogosphere. Here you can doodle with words until some of them magically arrange themselves into a real thought. Everything is throwaway and everything is preserved, so all your mako sharks hang out with your old slippers. In fact, I'm pretty sure that somewhere around here I have a lovely sketch of a mako shark wearing an old slipper...

The other day, while responding to someone's response to someone else's comment on another person's original post in connection with some news item, I accidentally said something that made sense. Thanks to Blogdom, my scribble on a multiply-used post-it note with all the corners torn off can be easily transferred to the fine stationery you see before you now.

It's always easier to extend grace to people we think don't really need it...

We all seem to have an internal scale by which we grade other people's faults. We grade their actions based upon execution and degree of atrocity. It's like we're judges at a sin-nastics meet. But our scoring is pretty much arbitrary, and personal. We each judge based on a different set of criteria, which we, ourselves, choose.

But we are rarely balanced in our application of standards, either. What we see as a horror in one person is nothing more than a misstep when done by another. Well, within certain bounds, of course. But those bounds can stretch a lot further than most of us would ever think, or care to believe.

I'm not talking about whether or not we should be happy to meet Idi Amin in heaven, as compared to overlooking a poor choice of words about AIDS from the lips of Billy Graham. On the other hand, I could just as well be comparing a man known as the "Butcher of Uganda," to one once voted the "Greatest Living American," because really, if it isn't equally administered, is it truly grace?

But let's forget about extremes. Grace, in order to be gracious, must be given without degree or favoritism. That isn't easy. It's just so natural to wish for, trust in, and see God's grace the most in people who offend us the least.

It's always easier to extend grace to people we think don't really need it...