993) I have an electric pencil sharpener in my classroom that my students are so enamored by, they gave it a name. Chewy. They love to take colored pencils to Chewy and watch and listen to its work. What is exasperating, though, is how many times they will put the same pencil in and it won’t sharpen it properly and they continue to push the pencil in repeatedly. They will inevitably raise their voices to me, saying, Chewy isn’t sharpening my pencil right. I’ll then look over at them and say, If it’s not working on that pencil, why do you keep doing it? They don’t know how to answer this question.

There are so many times in my life when it’s clear that what I am thinking, saying or doing isn’t working, and yet, I too continue to try it, anyway. Sigh. This very thing came to my mind when reading Romans 6:14.

In chapters 5-6 in Romans, Paul is telling God’s people that keeping the law (or rules) of God is not something that justifies us in his eyes. Why? Because we cannot keep the law, therefore, God gives us grace. Even though I know what God offers me, I keep punishing myself for every poor decision I make and this does not work. I do not become more “righteous” in doing this and yet, like my students using Chewy, I keep trying to do it, hoping for righteousness.

What will “work” is to imitate how our Father is with us and give ourselves grace. Grace opens the door to righteousness. If it didn’t, God would not give it to us. Let’s be “like father, like son.”