Grace
“And grace will lead us home.”
Oxford Language defines grace as a short prayer at a meal, and then as beauty and ease of movement. Surely that’s not what the hymn Amazing Grace is about? Dictionary.com defines grace as favor or goodwill. Closer, but not there yet. Merriam Webster gets it right, as far as we Southern Baptists are concerned. Grace is “unmerited divine assistance given to humans for their regeneration or sanctification.” Yes, that’s surely what John Newton had in mind when he wrote what is perhaps our most well known hymn.
I’ve been thinking a lot about grace lately, not so much in the truly theological sense, but rather in the ability that we each have to provide grace to those around us. Now, I know it’s not possible to transmit beauty and ease of movement, or at least not in my case. Proof would be the time Julie and I took dance lessons. But I think we all have the ability to provide grace to others in our personal and public lives, and although it’s largely out of fashion, we could all do with a bit of grace. Both on the giving and receiving ends.
A friend of mine recently posted that Senator Blunt, who has been in public life for four decades, is a “traitor.” Big if true. My friend was upset because Blunt voted in favor of a two month extension of the debt limit, bailing out the Democrats, at least for a while, as inter party strife has robbed the dems of their ability to fulfill the responsibilities of the majority. It’s not clear if the treason was committed with the substance of the vote, which means that we won’t default on our debt, or because the vote gave the Democrats time to put together their spending priorities with a more permanent increase in the debt limit. My bet is on the latter, as protecting the full faith and credit of the U.S. would seem to be the antithesis of treason. But who knows. We live in stupid times.
Anyway, my friend received lots of likes from followers, all convinced that Blunt ranks somewhere up there with the Rosenbergs because of a procedural vote that gives the Democrats two more months to finally notice what is patently obvious to any sentient being-they don’t have the votes to pass everything they want.
Now, did the Senator make a mistake? It’s impossible to know, at least not yet. Even if the Democrats come up with a compromise that spends any where near what they would like to spend, the answer still won’t be clear. We still won’t know whether the final spending levels will be lower with the two month interim than they would have been without the delay. Maybe there were promises made that help advance the cause of fiscal sanity. We’ll never know that, either. For sure the U.S. would not have, and will not, default, but Blunt’s vote did settle the financial markets and ensure normal functioning of the government for a few more months. That has value.
Blunt has been a legislator for a very long time. This offends many, as the fashionable belief is that public office corrupts, and a long time in office corrupts absolutely. This may even be true. But legislative bodies have rules and procedures, none more than the U.S. Senate, and experience provides a guide to using those rules to your side’s advantage. McConnell and Blunt may possibly know more about this stuff than a dozen Facebook commentators in Missouri.
Grace would require a bit of patience with a man who has served Missouri well for decades. Grace might allow disagreement, but not charges of a crime punishable by death. Grace is lacking everywhere, and we are the worse for its absence.