In my hometown yesterday three 16-year-old girls were walking on the sidewalk when an alleged drunk driver lost control of his car. The driver drove on the sidewalk, struck a tree and then spun out of control, hitting all three girls. Thankfully all three girls are expected to recover from their injuries and the man has been taken into custody.
I don’t know the girls personally but a number of our students attend the same school. My Facebook feed was filled with students expressing concern for the three girls and anger at the drunk driver.
If there’s anything that deserves of anger it is drunk driving. Driving under the influence is completely irresponsible and shows a total disregard for others. And while drunk drivers may deserve our anger, they’re also in need of grace.
I’ve never driven under the influence so I’d feel pretty secure violently pointing my finger at a drunk driver. When someone chooses to drive drunk and endangers the lives of three teenage girls, we feel righteous in our indignation. And while I certainly hope the drunk driver faces the full consequences of his actions, I also hope he experiences grace.
Whether we’ve ever driven drunk or not, we all need grace. It’s easy to cast judgment on others, especially when we haven’t made the same mistakes as those we’re judging. But even though we haven’t made those mistakes, we’ve still made our fair share.
We are all in desperate need of grace. God has extended that grace to us through Christ and we should extend that same grace to others. Hopefully when we choose to extend grace to others when they need it, they will give it back to us when we need it.
Because we all will eventually need it.
How has someone else showed you grace? How does that affect your desire to show grace?
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