Obligation vs Grace

In the book Faith and Doubt, John Ortberg talks about a poem by Robert Frost. A husband and wife are arguing about whether to take in a homeless man. The husband says that "home is the place where, when you go there, they have to take you in." The wife disagrees and says, "I would say, rather, home is what you don't have to deserve."

Everyone has probably heard the first quote, by the husband. It is often said as a phrase to offer comfort to people. It says to people that you will always have a home, even if no one wants to provide it for you.

Why do we never quote the second phrase? Why don't we talk about grace? I wonder if we don't take comfort in that second phrase because we don't really believe in grace. We don't really believe that we have a home, but we don't deserve it -- we don't find security in grace.

Isn't that amazing? Isn't it odd that we will say on one hand that God never breaks his promises, and say that we believe that, and yet we won't trust grace. We don't believe that God will love us even when we don't earn it.

We'll believe that someone will provide us a home out of obligation, but not out of grace.

Image: Our tree last year.