Even More Amazing Grace
40 years. Yes, that is how long it took Israel to reach the promised land. But I want to tell you about another 40 years…
You know the song “Amazing Grace”. What Christian doesn’t? One would be inclined to agree that whoever wrote this song was an exceptional follower of Jesus. And in that , one would be right. John Newton wrote the song shortly after his conversion to Christianity. John was a ship captain. When he came to Christ his life changed in a way that make people around him notice. Well, most people but I will get to that later.
What changed was some of his ways. He used to use foul language, drank excessively, and had a temper. This changed and maybe because of all the time he freed up by not cursing and drinking, he got to write the song “Amazing Grace”. But John remained a slave owner. Not only that he captained ships that took captured slaves from their homes and families. Some say he picked up the tune for amazing grace by listening to a song that the slaves in the bottom of the ship sang.
Eventually his awareness of his sin extended to a grasp of the fact that capturing, holding, abducting and trading slaves was also a horrible sin, probably even more so than cursing and drinking. He repented of that eventually. But it took…40 years.
Grace gets even more amazing the longer we live and allow it to transform and confront us.