Graceland

Perhaps it is a sign of the times. In the last month I have seen more lists of favorite things than I have seen in ten years. Perhaps it is a development out of our hard times. If I have no money to worry about what new gadgets and toys to buy, I will play with my old toys. Perhaps there are always periods of reflections when people stop and look back and rank their favorites. But I have seen in three or four places lists of favorite books, lists of favorite movies, lists of records (some people still have records) and lists of favorite Cd's or tunes.

One of my reactions is to wonder about myself as I could not tell you the top ten movies that I have enjoyed in my life. I could not name the ten or five best albums in my life. I hardly know the real names to most of the songs I liked. I was never one of those people who knew the director of a movie. Even now when the credits start to roll, I leave the theater. I never knew who the people were in the Four Tops or the Supremes. I have not found that these things marked my life in pivotal ways. Maybe the reality is that they marked it much more significantly because I was not consciously aware of the shaping.

But one person's list of top five albums had in it an album by Paul Simon and was the album was Graceland. While I do not know what Paul Simon intended by the song by the same name, but there is a line that I think is pure gospel. "There are reasons to believe that we all maybe received in Graceland." I immediately think of the Kingdom of God as Graceland, the land of Grace, and I do believe that there are good reasons to believe that we all, all people, may be received into Graceland. Because if we are all saved by Grace, and not by works, and if God is gracious and loving, then there are good reasons to believe as Paul Simon says, "we all maybe received in Graceland."

Grace is everywhere. Enjoy. The real hell is that grace is all around and we refuse to see it, accept it and share it.