Reflections on What's So Amazing About Grace by Philip Yancy

The Men's Bible Study Group selected this book to study together this summer. I have missed being with the group while away but promised that I would engage myself and send a few personal reflections back home. My prayer is that this experience has been as fruitful for you as it has been for me.

Yancy's book so far has proven to be a wonderful companion for my cross-country trip. Familiar with a number of his other works, I eagerly looked forward to beginning this study. I brought a few other books with me, but our choice has beckoned me more often than the others in the last few days. What I have learned most even in the opening chapters is that even as a pastor, I still have a lot to learn about grace and the multiplicity of ways in which it interacts with my personal and professional life. I listened for the word “grace” this week intentionally as the study guide suggested. I heard the word first in a sermon preached by The Rev. John White on Tuesday June 3 here at the Montreat Youth Conference. John is a friend and the Dean of Students at the seminary that taught me a few things about grace – but admittedly… not enough. I heard it again on Wednesday at the Farmer’s Market in Asheville while selecting a watermelon for the youth picnic that night. A woman by the name of Ruby sold me that watermelon between verses 3 and 4 of Amazing Grace. Needless to say, we had more to talk about than watermelons that afternoon. God is good! I also read Tony Campola’s story again on page 20-21 in the study guide and laughed out loud … again! “No… no, you don’t. There is no church like that. I would join a church like that!”

By the time I got through Chapter 3 I couldn’t put the book down. I kept remembering time spent with a good and trusted friend and her telling me about growing up in a church of “ungrace” and how she was conditioned by this community of faith to believe that there were benchmarks and rites of passage to receive the “heavenly” reward. You had to EARN it. Nothing’s free in life, she learned over and over again … in church! I am still particularly stricken by the analogy and comparison of grace being likened to lenses that go unnoticed simply because we are looking through them! Lord give me eyes to literally see the grace around me

Chapters 4 and 5 reminded me of a few of Yancy’s other works that I have enjoyed as he shares several versions of modern day parables that emphasize and point out to us a very significant truth … that the stories of Jesus were not intended to teach us how to live … they were to teach us WHO GOD LOVES! My son Jeremy has a friend that’s going through a hard time right now. He’s been sending text messages to him throughout our trip and although we’ve been somewhat annoyed a few times by the interruptions, we’ve have permitted it – primarily because we acknowledge the pastoral ministry and care that is needed here and how God is using Jeremy in the provision. Jeremy unloaded on us today in the car however concerning his frustrations with trying to reach this friend and make him understand that God loves him and so do others around him. I listened for about ten miles and after a time of silence asked Jeremy if he thought it might be the time to introduce the word “grace” to his friend. “Grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us more, and nothing we can do to make God love us less.” (study guide – page 41)