He answered, ‘I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know that though I was blind, now I see.’ (John 9:25)
The woman confronted me right after the service. She said, “I despise the hymn ‘Amazing Grace.’”
I said, “Why is that?”
She pulled out a hymnal and seethed: “Just listen to that awful first verse: ‘Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now I am found; was blind, but now I see.’”
I said, “What’s wrong with that?”
She said, “I’m not a wretch. I’m not lost. I’m not blind.” With that pronouncement, she stomped off with her family in tow—who looked, by the way, pretty wretched.
A year after this incident, this woman called me and asked me to visit her at her house. When I walked in, she said, “Yesterday, my family did an intervention on me for my drinking. They think I’m an alcoholic.”
I said, “What do you think?”
She said, “I think they’re right. I need help.”
I said, “I’m thankful to hear you say that.”
She said, “Do you remember when I scolded you when we sang ‘Amazing Grace’ at church?”
I smiled and nodded that I did.
She continued, “I hated that hymn because I was indeed wretched and didn’t want to admit it. I was lost and resented it. I was blind because I didn’t want to see what I was doing. Maybe now I can understand what grace means.”
Today I encourage us to sing and embrace Amazing Grace. This hymn is our song. Maybe we don’t need our family to do an intervention on us, but we all need an intervention of truth. On our own, we are wretched. Without God, we are blind. Without grace, we are lost.
Reflection Questions:
- When have you been “wretched” or “lost” or “blind?”
- Has God’s amazing grace ever come to you? If so, when and what were the circumstances?
- The woman in today’s reflection went to rehab. When she returned, she was a completely different person. The program and God’s grace had changed her. Has God’s grace changed you? If so, how?
I can’t sing Amazing Grace without getting weepy. I think it is out of gratitude for God’s saving me from my wretchedness time and time again!
Just the other day, I was talking to God telling him how I fear I haven’t led our boys to God enough. They are both doing their own thing in college and don’t seem to need God’s help or guidance that I am aware of.
Reading your note on Hope reminds me that I may not know everything and that even when one of my son’s seems to not need God, that inside somewhere God is working with them on knowing and loving him better. Thanks so much Jim for your notes on Hope.