Grace.

I went to Toa Payoh Methodist Church with the Psychological Branch from Prisons today for a briefing on the Yellow Ribbon Project. It was a briefing to all some of the church representatives, halfway houses representatives, and just the general church population who were interested in this project.

For those who don't already know, the Yellow Ribbon project is about unlocking the second prison. Removing the stigma that follows inmates through the greater part of their lives, when society discriminates, shuns and looks down on them, preventing them from getting a second chance to their lives and allows the cycle of crime to continue. As Mark Lee said in the movie 'One More Chance,' "the judge has sentenced me to 10 years, but you have sentenced me for life."

Throughout the talk, I was thinking about why the role of the churches was so important here. Why the Christians? Essentially, I guess my question is, what makes the church unique compared to other faith communities?

And thinking about it, I agree with CS Lewis on this: Grace. What is this grace? It is love and forgiveness, given to those who have 'no way earned it, who barely possessed the faculties to receive it.' [taken from Babette's Feast] It is an unconditional love, something one can never earn, something that is given with no strings attached, which one can never gain from doing good deeds.

Grace is unmathematical. And something that doesn't come to people naturally. You only need to look around you to see 'ungrace' being played out. Gangs fight because 'they beat us first, we need to take revenge'. Wars break out becuase 'we've got to teach this people a lesson, we are no pushovers.' Youths get thrown in to jail because all they have learnt from their abusive fathers was that violence and hate get you to places. Always 'an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.'

But grace puts a stop to this cycle. Grace says 'No. I will not fight back. Even if it hurts me, kills me, I forgive you. And you can keep hurting me, but I forgive you.' Such a radical notion, one of the crucial themes in Christianity, yet sadly not easily practised among us.

Amazing Grace is a song that is known by Christians and non-Christians alike. But do the people who sing it know what it truly means? I see so many similarities between us and the inmates. The difference is, they suffer more greatly for their mistakes. They are pushed to a position to admit they have done wrong, and in some cases, they know that what they have done is unforgivable. They have come to the lowest point of their lives, and have sunk so low that when grace comes to them in the form of acceptance, and love, they accept it the best. Grace is a gift. A gift only for those who truly realize that they are nothing without it. We are a fallen people on the whole, we are broken, bound by sins, though sometimes we do not suffer for them presently. We are prisoners of our bad habits, our mistakes, our sins.

Christians fall into a trap where they struggle with pride. And pride is the one thing that prevents us from experiencing Grace. And hence, prevents us from giving it to others. Gosh, i could really keep on discussing about what Grace means to me, but I don't think I can ever give it justice.

I'm gonna pick up the book, 'What's so amazing about grace' once more. It's a book one can never tire of reading.