A description of grace your soul needs today

We live in a culture that separates everyone into two categories: winners and losers.

There were twenty-four winners in Sunday night’s Academy Awards. Conversely, there were ninety-eight losers.

But at least they received nominations. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are 249,607 actors and other professionals in the motion picture and video production industry; almost all were excluded from the Oscars.

And yet, each of them is a winner in a way. They have a job in the film industry, unlike the multitudes who would like to work in the movies but don’t.

Meanwhile, odds are being calculated for college basketball’s “March Madness” tournament. As baseball’s spring training continues, analysts are debating who is likely to win this year’s World Series.

The underlying message is clear: if you win, you’re a winner; if you lose, you’re a loser.

“The smell of rain is grace”

Frederick Buechner is one of the most perceptive theologians I know. Consider his description of “grace,” a brief essay so insightful that it defies editing:

“After centuries of handling and mishandling, most religious words have become so shopworn nobody’s much interested anymore. Not so with grace, for some reason. Mysteriously, even derivatives like gracious and graceful still have some of the bloom left.

“Grace is something you can never get but only be given. There’s no way to earn it or deserve it or bring it about any more than you can deserve the taste of raspberries and cream or earn good looks or bring about your own birth.

“A good sleep is grace and so are good dreams. Most tears are grace. The smell of rain is grace. Somebody loving you is grace. Loving somebody is grace. Have you ever tried to love somebody?

“A crucial eccentricity of the Christian faith is the assertion that people are saved by grace. There’s nothing you have to do. There’s nothing you have to do. There’s nothing you have to do.

“The grace of…