Mercy & Grace

I have heard several pastors preach on the subject of mercy and grace. Their definition is that mercy is not getting what we deserve, and grace is getting what we don’t deserve. Well, I experienced both when working at Lake Oconee Presbyterian Church last week.

I had prepared art work for publication in the lake area newspapers and in a direct mail campaign to advertise LOPC’s Easter services. There was a typo on the time of the Maundy Thursday Seder Presentation. The correct time was to be at 6:30 p.m. but the art work stated 7:30 p.m. So what to do? These advertisements would go to almost 5,000 households in the lake area. I could just see multitudes showing up at 7:30 for a presentation that had already been done. What could we do but change the service to 7:30? That meant changing out 60+ posters in the community, updating the web site, e-blasts, e-mails to local churches, reprinting bulletins and bulletin inserts, and so on.

So I came in on Friday to start work on the corrections. And guess who came in on their day off? Pastor Clark, who insisted on taking ½ of the posters to help! I also had several other people to call to help. I tried to get Pastor Clark to let me update all of the posters, but his response was “We are a team, we need to help each other.” Well, I don’t know what I deserved regarding my colossal mistake, but I am very grateful for the grace that was extended to me by all. I am grateful for Pastor Clark’s moral building attitude, and the loving people I work with and for at LOPC.