A young employee secretly misappropriated several hundred dollars of his business firm’s money. When this action was discovered the young man was told to report to the office of the senior partner of the firm.
As he walked up the stairs toward the administrative office the young employee was heavy-hearted. He knew without a doubt he would lose his position with the firm. He also feared the possibility of legal action taken against him. Seemingly his whole world had collapsed.
Upon his arrival in the office of the senior executive the young man was questioned about the whole affair. He was asked if the allegations were true and he answered in the affirmative.
Then the executive surprisingly asked this question: “If I keep you in your present capacity, can I trust you in the future?” The young worker brightened up and said, “Yes, sir, you surely can. I’ve learned my lesson.”
The executive responded, “I’m not going to press charges, and you can continue in your present responsibility.” The employer concluded the conversation with his younger employee by saying, “I think you ought to know, however, that you are the second man in this firm who succumbed to temptation and was shown leniency.
I was the first. What you have done, I did. The mercy you are receiving, I received. It is only the grace of God that can keep us both going.”
Grace is when God gives us what we don’t deserve.
Mercy is when God doesn’t give us what we do deserve.
My Commentary:
This story begins where so many of our own stories begin — in fear, shame, and the certainty that consequences are unavoidable. The young employee walks up the stairs believing his life is about to collapse. He knows he is guilty. He knows he deserves judgment. And he assumes that mercy is no longer an option.
That assumption is the first thing grace overturns.
The executive’s question changes everything: “If I keep you, can I trust you in the future?” It is not a denial of wrongdoing. It is an invitation to transformation. Grace does not pretend sin never happened. It asks whether sin will have the final word.
What makes the moment holy is not merely leniency, but identification. The senior partner does not stand above the young man — he stands beside him. “I was the first,” he says. In that confession, power is disarmed and mercy becomes credible. Judgment flows downward; grace moves horizontally.
This is how God deals with us. God does not excuse our failure, but neither does God abandon us to it. Mercy spares us the punishment we deserve. Grace entrusts us with a future we have not earned.
And perhaps the most humbling truth of all is this: those who show the greatest mercy are often those who know most deeply how much mercy they themselves have received.
We are not kept by our strength, our resolve, or our good intentions. We are kept — day after day — by grace.
When did someone show YOU this kind of mercy?
IT’S CRAZY HOW GOD FORGIVES US DAILY, YET WE HOLD GRUDGES FOREVER!!
This story gets at the heart of what so many are struggling with in America today. Please share it with someone you just met. And please listen to my Podcast.
