Whatever happened to grace?

I had two separate things happen recently that really opened my eyes to the condition of our country.

The first happened last Friday. It was trash day and I forgot to set the trash can out. When I saw the truck coming up the road, I sprinted out, dragging the 150 pound of garbage we had accumulated behind me. The trash man passed right by our drive, but stopped at the next door neighbors' and loaded up his trash. He watched me dragging the heavy thing as fast as I could down our muddy drive way, and as I smiled at him, he loaded up his truck and continued on.

Now I know that nowhere in the universe is it written that he had to come back the whopping 50 feet to get my can. I had missed my opportunity to get my junk picked up. But it was only 50 feet!!! It didn't seem like it would have cost him that much to go out of his way a little. Evidently he disagreed. The can has been sitting out by the road all week.

The second event happened as I was trying to get some lunch during a busy day. I cruised into the local McDonald's (not even close to my favorite place to eat, but I only had $2 for lunch, so they were the choice of the day.) As I pulled up and ordered a hamburger, I was reminded that there was still 4 minutes till they started serving lunch. Frustrated, I ran a quick errand to take a video back, and was back in line within a couple minutes. When I got up to the speaker phone, I was reminded that it was still 2 minutes before they would be serving lunch. I sat there in silent protest to the stupidity of their inflexible schedule.

It seems that there just isn't much room in life for grace any more. I know that I was in the wrong in both instances. I know nobody HAD to help me. But would it have been so horrible to come back and get my can, or serve me a stupid hamburger 2 minutes early? I mean COME ON!!

What have we become when the letter of the law matters more than the people we serve? What does it mean in the church? Do we live the law, or do we live grace? And would it really hurt us that much to show a little grace to those who need it once in awhile? We don't do that with our Christian family - why would we do it out there in the real world?

Are there any real followers of Jesus in the house? I don't think my garbage man or the employee at McDonald's were Christians. But we are. Shouldn't we live lives of grace? And if your answer is 'yes', then I propose the simple question -are you?