TOD 12.19.07

All of us who have ever received a paycheck have had to learn a simple principle: the more we spend on ourselves, the less we have for other purposes. What if we used that concept to think about God’s grace toward us? Imagine that every week God has allotted to us a certain number of grace units, call them graceos, which we then decide how to use.

Now, as with a paycheck, I must first pay my debts, which are the sins of my daily life. Jesus’s blood is clearly enough to pay off my debts, but if there’s nothing left over, I can’t be a blessing to others this week. I have so many graceos to use, and the more I mess up, the less there is left for uses beyond my own debts.

Of course, it may not work precisely like this, but it’s sobering to imagine that such an economy would mean that, every time I sin, I am not just harming my own character, but cheating someone else as well. When I retire to heaven, my portfolio will show how I spent my grace here on earth.