When I was in high school, it took a lot to make me cry. Even when I broke my nose, I barely shed a tear (from my recollection, at least).  At some point in college, my emotions caught up to me, and nowadays, it doesn’t take much to open the tear ducts.  Therefore, I should not have been surprised when I started tearing up during chapel at school a few weeks ago.

You probably know what I mean when I say that our brains associate certain songs with certain memories/people/places.  For me, the song “This is Amazing Grace” always takes me back the Cowen Center at the University of Texas at Tyler where Pine Cove had their annual staff training.

I wrote in an earlier post that “I was guarded and distant” in the months leading up to my first summer as a photographer for Pine Cove.  I remember standing in the darkened stadium, singing the familiar song, and watching with curiosity as my peers unabashedly worshipped our God.  Their eyes were closed, their heads were raised, and they sang with passion.  I, meanwhile, stood wide-eyed and wondered at their knowledge of God’s grace.

As a sophomore in college, I had been saved for well over a decade, but I hadn’t realized the depth of God’s grace.  I don’t think that I had truly considered the extent of Jesus’ love that he would take my place, pay for all my sin, forgive my rebellion against Him, and remain faithful to me forever.

But as we sang “This Is Amazing Grace” during high school chapel a few weeks ago (and then as we sang it in Spanish at church a few days later), I could only think of God’s faithfulness.  He was faithful when I was “guarded and distant.” He was faithful as I traveled on countless short-term mission trips.  He is faithful when I have a bad day, when I continue to sin, and when I come to Him again for forgiveness. He is faithful in the USA, and He is faithful in Spain.

Paul’s letter to the Romans comes to mind (Romans 5:6-11 ESV):

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. 

This is amazing grace.