Common Grace

I was at a concert at the Baghdad Theater in Portland, Or (my hometown) last year with my wife and close friends the Diskos. The place was jammed, and I had gotten separated from the three of them as I moved through the stifling crowd. I have fought panic attacks successfully over the past 30 years, but the mass of people around me triggered the chest pained panic I have dealt with so often during that time.

I have to get to my wife, I thought in desperation. She has always been able to get me on track. But she was nowhere in sight, and I was sinking fast. I felt the heart attack coming. I was blacking out. I would fall unnoticed in the crowd.

I suddenly realized that I wouldn't fall unnoticed. I would fall in a group of people I didn't know, but some of those people would respond with alarm at my situation, prop me up, clear a space for me to lie in comfortably, call 9-1-1, and talk to me reassuringly until the paramedics arrived.

It's not all good versus evil in this world. It's not always Christian vs. non-Christian.

There is a common grace mankind shares. It's the invisible thing that links us all. It can be disrupted by what we've done or come to believe, but it is part of everything God created. It's easy for Christians to dislike non-Christians; to resent their actions and philosophy. But Christ didn't die for only some people. He died for all He loved: , that is everyone.

I realized as I moved across the floor that this meant I was safe, surrounded by many caring, compassionate people, who regardless of their opinion about Jesus Christ, are loved by God nevertheless and show that in their humanity.

I made it to my seat. It was a hell of a show.

I have yet to have a heart attack.