Welcome.

Preach My Gospel is chalk full of good things therein. I very much love this quote:

“There is more grace, love, and mercy

in Jesus Christ than there is failure,

flaw, or sin in us.”

(Preach My Gospel, page 56)

These words are so hopefully telling!

For all the failures we’ve experienced, for the seemingly uncountable flaws about which we don’t wish to be reminded, and for the myriad of sins that, as Nephi observed, “so easily beset” us – for all of this – still, the Savior possesses more in grace, love, and mercy than that in which we are deficient. (2 Nephi 4:18)

I really can’t grasp this fully, but I believe it. And I love it. It feels so optimistic – as if one really should take the wonderful chance and venture ever closer to the grace, love, and mercy of Jesus Christ, as if in so doing, one may be overcome by an unequaled display of and experience with His grace, love, and mercy.

I learned from my mission president many years ago that both grace and mercy, as administered by Jesus and God, flow first from Their love for us. Elder Holland has said it so beautifully: “…the first great truth of all eternity is that God loves us with all of His heart, might, mind, and strength. That love is the foundation stone of eternity…Indeed it is only with that reassurance burning in our soul that we can have the confidence to keep trying to improve…” (Holland, J. “Tomorrow the Lord Will Do Wonders Among You,” April 2016)

I love the following story told by LDS author, Wallace Goddard. He writes,

“Many years ago, when I was a faculty member at a southern university, a student came to see me with a question. She was from Utah and had been a Latter-day Saint, but she did not participate in the local branch and was quite actively breaking the commandments.

She came to see me because she was perplexed. She said, “It seems Jesus keeps knocking on the door of my life and wants in.”

I smiled. “And how do you respond to His knocks?”

“Well, I tell Him to take off! I don’t need Him coming into my life complaining about the mess I’ve made of my life. I have enough problems without Him lecturing me and punishing me!”

I was tempted to wonder why she was telling me this. I hadn’t heard a question. But I suspected one was coming. I waited.

“What do you think I should do?” she asked.

An idea popped into my mind. “I think that the next time you hear Him knocking on the door of your life, you should go to the door and tell Him that He can come in as long as He goes directly to the linen closet, does not wander around or cause any trouble, and leaves after five minutes.”

She was shocked. “I can’t say that to Him!”

“I think it is better than what you have been saying.”

She mumbled, “I don’t think I can do it.”

I smiled and shrugged.

About a week later the same student came to see me again. She was very sober. She took a seat in my office. “It happened.”

I nodded and waited.

“I was sitting in my class, listening to the lecture, when I felt that He was knocking on the door of my life again.”

I smiled thinking how clever He is; He came knocking when she was trapped in a class and could not distract herself with television, web surfing, or eating. He met her in a place where she was peaceful and stuck.

I asked, “What did you do?”

“Well, in my mind, I went to the door of my life and told Him that he could come in for five minutes if He stayed in the linen closet and didn’t cause any trouble.”

She was quiet for a while before asking, “Why didn’t anyone tell me? Why did I grow up in the Church and no one told me what it was like when He comes in?” She paused. “He loved me. He encouraged me. He spoke words of kindness. He gave me hope. It was so different from what I expected!”

Yes. That is what Jesus does. He loves, He lifts, He blesses, He encourages. It is the misunderstood Jesus who loves to torment and annoy us. The real Jesus heals the sick, comforts the afflicted, and lifts from the mire those who are stuck. I adore Him! I rejoice in Him! He is the personification of grace.” (Discovering Jesus’ Grace, Goddard, W. 28 March, 2023)

And of mercy.

And of love.

I, too, adore Jesus. As broken and untogether and unworthy as I am, I really do believe that what He has to offer in way of love, grace, and mercy is more than what I have in way of faults, failures, and sins. I love the unbalanced nature of this arrangement: that He possesses more than what I lack, and He can make me whole, more prepared to return to Father, more able to endure a divine presence.

In conclusion, may I invite you to listen to this song by Michael Eldridge who sings incredibly about the “wonderful grace of Jesus.” And it could be sung, too, of the “wonderful [love] of Jesus” as well as the “wonderful [mercy] of Jesus.

Unto all the world: “There is more grace, love, and mercy in Jesus Christ than there is failure, flaw, or sin in [me].” (Preach My Gospel, page 56)