You can blow it in Vegas, which might take two weekends. You could build a garage and fill it with Jay Leno's cars. You could just drive to the airport and pick the next plane, first class, thanks, and never come back. Even charter your own jet. Or heck, just buy one! You could buy a villa on the sea, or maybe a half dozen of them. You could pay off your student loans and still have a little left over. You could invest and never care about the market ups and downs. You could buy a sports team.
You could build a hospital, fund a new charity, feed Sierra Leone, run for President, throw $100 bills all over downtown at those with bongos and "Help" signs trying to get by. You could sponsor 1000 kids through Compassion International. You could rebuild New Orleans. You could pay off Illinois' state debt. You could repave the roads in Chicago after this winter.
And you know what? No one's taking the money back whichever way you choose. If you blow it, it's yours. If you give it away, it's yours. The money has been given to you and nothing will change that. Nothing. No matter how responsible or irresponsible you are, you open the account statements, and there it is, still.
Stop dreaming. Enough of that. Here's what is real: God's grace. What confuses us is that grace is too good to be true, like getting the call about your $100 Mil. So God chooses to love me, rescues me from hopelessness and despair, and in that moment decides I'm His. Forever? He's never going to change His mind and cast me away? No matter what? If I live like an idiot, He loves me. If I love Him back (or not), He loves me. If I slowly begin to let Him grow in me and become all that He desires, He loves me. He doesn't change His mind. His grace is mine.
And just like Uncle Harry's bank account, it's mine to do with as I please. What will I do with that grace? Will I abuse it and waste it? Will it have been given in vain? (2 Cor 6:1 Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. ESV) We can't lose it once we have it. But it can be wasted...and how sad that is. But most of us don't even know that we've received it anyway, or what it means.
This is the best way I can think of to explain our responsibilities in the light of God's grace. We cannot earn more grace! Nothing we do will add to it or diminish it. And that's where the messages we regularly hear confuse us. Sometimes what we hear is: "If you do this, God will bless you." "If you become a really devoted Christian and pray three times a day, read your Bible, and floss...then God will surely love you more and protect you and give you a happy life." That's what we hear. But that's not Biblical. God loves you in the same way that you love your kids. If your kids behave, you love them. If they misbehave, you're not happy, but you love them! If they get arrested, you love them. If they become movie stars, well, wait, that's arrested most of the time, isn't it? If they become doctors, you love them. Your love doesn't change based on how well they live. God's love doesn't change based on how well (or poorly) you live. Ever. Get over it.
But now, you have grace, acceptance, love that won't end, hope and a purpose. And to quote Braveheart: "What will you do with that Freedom?"
It's ours to choose. Let's not waste it.
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