Now that I'm an official graduate of Thomas Edison State University, I'm on the alumni email list. A few days go Alumni Affairs sent me an email inviting me to attend a TESU banquet at a fancy restaurant in Princeton, New Jersey, next week.
My mom likes to see these kinds of things, so I got ready to forward the email to her. But I quickly typed a tongue-in-cheek line to her first.
(There are two things you have to know about my response before I share it: 1) TESU is an adult education school, meaning most of the students are in their thirties, forties, or fifties, and 2) I did my entire education long-distance so I interacted personally with very few students.)
Which is why you might understand my joking response to Mom: "Want to go to a fancy restaurant in Princeton in 10 days and hang out with a bunch of old people I don't know?"
The only thing is, I didn't send this to Mom.
I sent it back to Roxanne - the lady from Alumni Affairs who sent me the original email.
Yes. I did that. Then I started laughing because it was kind of funny.
Don't worry, though. I hastily typed a new email to Roxanne explaining that my reply was not meant for her, it was meant for my mom, it was supposed to be a joke, I'm only 18, I'm really sorry, etc., etc.
Was it a sin? I don't think so. But it was still dumb and reminded me of my fallibility. It pointed out my need for grace.
I was recently thinking about this. Only people who recognize that they mess up and do dumb stuff really get grace. The perfectionists balk at it because they think grace is beneath them. But whether we know it or not, we all need grace - because we all do dumb stuff. Doing dumb stuff makes us human.
That's why Christians can have hope. In the midst of the dumb stuff we do, we have grace. We depend on it. Everything good in our lives is because of Jesus and grace is no exception. Grace is life's greatest relief and mightiest joy. And when we are dumb, that is really good news.
But I'm still sorry, Roxanne.