Originally posted on Facebook on Monday, January 23, 2017.
His flight leaves Jackson International Airport in 2 hours and we're still in Starkville. Undeterred, we hop in his gold Cadillac, and speed down 25 in a heroic effort to make a two hour trip in an hour and thirty. On the way, Dr. Gregory Jones and I are having a discussion about grace and mercy because, being new to grace, I was struggling to make a distinction between the two. And, just as as we get out of the Starkville city limits, we are met by the blue lights of a Mississippi Highway Patrol car. As the officer leans down to take my license, he sees Pastor Jones and recognizes him immediately. They chat, they laugh and the officer lets us go with a warning. As we pull back onto the highway, Dr. Jones says, "See, the officer letting you go without a ticket is mercy. He didn't give you what you deserved. Now, had he let you go and also gave you $100, that's grace – giving you more than you deserve."
I could tell a story every day for years about what this man invested in my life. But what's more important is that you get what Dr. Gregory Jones life was all about, what God shared him with us to give: Your innermost desire is to see your Heavenly Father smile, to know that "you're good". And, all it takes to make God smile, is to accept the Gift that He gave -Christ. The Gift, through acceptance, does the rest. That's grace.