Below is a  post from when I first came to OS that I think deserves a second look in relation to Easter so I'm posting it again. I hope many of you can catch it the second time around. It's on Grace and Forgiveness. If you read it before maybe you can forgive me .)

Originally titled "We All Want Justice...For Someone Else"

While I consider myself an uninterested athiest I believe that Chritianity's greatest potential (read unmet potential) is the religions capacity for Grace. More than Hinduism that seems to call for a cosmic balance sheet of rights and wrongs and Buddhist belief in overcoming the human condition, Christianity is founded on the concept of Grace.
The most elegant, accurate definition of grace is "unmerited favor." Whether it is beauty of form or personality grace describes a quality independent of our deservedness. A graceful form is timeless.It posseses a quality that exisits without need of our presence to confirm its' goodness. It exists without our earning it, whether we deserve to enjoy it or not.
At it's best, Christian theory describes an unearned spirit of forgiveness- that is forgiveness that is not changed by ones worthiness. It holds the most grace for those who deserve it least. Grace is unlimited, blind, and uncaring of position. Grace is to Justice what Love is to affection. Justice with Grace recognizes not only the harm done but the potential for healing that lives along side it. Grace with justice recognizes the power of forgiveness and the ability to bring great (and minor) harm to others.
We often hear of someones wish that another "get what they deserve" but few of us, none of us, really want to get what we deserve. It is that hope for grace even more than forgiveness that makes it possible for us to get through life despite all the major and minor wrongs that we have commited. We hope for blindness to our hurtful moments even as we repent for them.
But Grace is not a product or dependent of religion or spirituality, it too is a human condition. It is independent of a belief in god or spirit. It can be cultivated within ourselves with quiet internal reasoning. Jesus' last commandment is good advice to all of us believers and non "Love your neighbor as you love yourself." Forgive your neighbor as you forgive yourself. Be as ignorant of your neighbor's faults as you are ignorant of your own. Justify your neighbor's behavior as if it was your own. Grace is human, it can be achieved by simply reminding yourself of the human condition (sometimes repeatedly and with great conviction)
     This is intended not as a sermon but as a point of consideration. A question to ask yourself about your ability to be gracious. It is not an accusation about a lack of grace in the past. Everyone who has ever had contact with us has extended Grace in some measure and we to them.The greatest beneficiary of grace may not be the recipient but the one who resides within a state of grace themselves, aware of, but unsullied by the intentions and mistakes of others.

Post Script:
I feel like I should make it clear that the above is not a statement of my own status as a paragon of grace but that of its' recipient. My past and continued existence has and will continue to be dependent on the grace of others. The forgiveness of those who overlook my sometimes overbearing, opinionated, selfish or otherwise flawed moments are responsible for my recognition of the power of Grace to heal and transform. May the god, godess, ungendered diety of their choice and other divine human beings bless them for the kindnesses that they have shown to me and let this be considered a big thank you for that unearned kindness in the many forms that it has taken.                                                         -Tim