Extended Grace

I recently bumped into a man, who I’ll call Fred, who wanted to collect what his friends owed him. He was tired of tracking the loans, as it was a significant amount of money due to the effects of the economy. He started with his friends who owed him the biggest amounts of money. One friend, who I’ll call Tom, owed him $6,000 that he used to pay off his credit card to alleviate the high monthly interest rate.

As you might suspect, Tom was not in a position to pay off the loan and was hoping to make small monthly payments for years to come. However, Fred pressured him to have a garage sale and he collected $900 from it. Since this was a small amount of what Tom still owed and money was now tighter than ever, Tom begged Fred for mercy.

Fred surprised the daylights out of Tom by canceling his debt. They were even. Tom was extremely excited about the turn of events. His emotional and mental strength quickly rebounded from the depression he faced. With his new outlook in life, Tom went to one of his friends who I’ll call Beth, and immediately demanded that she pay him the $100 she had borrowed.

When Beth wasn’t able to pay him, he took her High Definition television set as collateral and told Beth he’d bring it back once she paid the $100 debt. Fred told me how shocked he was when word got back to him. He immediately ended his friendship with Tom, especially since Tom wasn’t the man he thought he was. Tom got laid off three months later and found no one willing to help him out financially. In fact, Fred said that no one was around to console him or give him food.

I shared the parable of the forgiven debt with Fred and asked him why he didn’t help Tom once he was down. Fred told me that he was too insulted and couldn’t trust Tom’s sincerity or humility, especially since he was unable to pass on the same grace he had received.

I asked Fred if anyone had paid a debt for him and if he in turn might want to reconsider helping Tom. Fred proudly shared that he never needed help financially. So, I asked him if he ever needed help spiritually, emotionally or mentally. To which he replied, “Grace isn’t grace, unless it is freely given.” While I agreed with the boundaries that Fred put in his life so Tom wouldn’t continue to siphon off his funds, I couldn’t help but wonder if there was still something that could be done for Tom.

It later dawned on me that God gives all of us a chance to receive His grace and the day will come when the gift will no longer be available to those not wanting it. Tom clearly didn’t understand the friendship he had with Fred, nor did he understand the generosity of his gift. So, eventually Fred stopped extending his generosity to the man who never appreciated it.

Do you appreciate what God, your friends and family extended toward you?