Rich and Free
A friend recently directed me to a website that blew my mind a little bit. Basically, certain library systems subscribe, and people who have a library card under one of those systems can log on and download music for free. They’ve got everything from AR Rahman to Ke$ha to Billie Holiday. And it’s free!
You get three free downloads a week, and as far as I can see, you get to keep the songs. The whole time I was browsing the site, I was just in disbelief. I gasped each time I saw an elusive artist or a song that I had wanted to buy for months. (I am not a huge fan of spending money. I still haven’t bought the album that Owl City released last June because I was worried that he would release a deluxe edition as soon as I bought the regular one.) I’m still kind of expecting that when I log on to iTunes, it will tell me that my rental has expired and I need to give my song back.
Basically, it completely made my night to learn that I could have access to all of this music for completely free. Then I remembered something else.
The campus ministry I’m in regularly has pizza lunches in the eating area of our student union. We buy a bunch of boxes of pizza and welcome anyone to eat with us for free. “The pizza is free because God’s grace is free!” my campus minister often says.
God’s grace is free for me because Jesus paid for my sins.
It’s something that I’ve heard over and over again, growing up in the church, and that I don’t appreciate nearly enough. It’s a little bit ridiculous that I can get so incredibly excited about getting some free music and just accept getting eternal life as the regular. I’m grateful, though, for the way that God uses little things like this to remind me. So now, I turn to His Word, specifically Ephesians 2:
“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”
Sometimes it takes a little music site to remind me of what’s really important. The Ephesians passage tells a true story- it really points out what we were, what God was and is, and what we can become through Him. And while my iPod will pass away, and I’ll probably eventually forget some of the words to the long-treasured song, the love and grace of Jesus will last forever. And that is pretty amazing.
Also, because I feel the need to sing about everything, all of this brought to mind the hymn “The Love of Christ is Rich and Free.” =) It’s little lessons like this that remind me to not get swept up in just the music, but to actually reflect on what I’m singing and to truly understand the words in this song and in the Bible passage above.
The love of Christ is rich and free;
Fixed on His own eternally;
Nor earth, nor hell, can it remove;
Long as He lives, His own He’ll love.
His loving heart engaged to be
Their everlasting Surety;
’Twas love that took their cause in hand,
And love maintains it to the end.
Love cannot from its post withdraw;
Nor death, nor hell, nor sin, nor law,
Can turn the Surety’s heart away;
He’ll love His own to endless day.
Love has redeemed His sheep with blood;
And love will bring them safe to God;
Love calls them all from death to life;
And love will finish all their strife.
He loves through every changing scene,
Nor aught from Him can Zion wean;
Not all the wanderings of her heart
Can make His love for her depart.
Love cannot from its post withdraw;
Nor death, nor hell, nor sin, nor law,
Can turn the Surety’s heart away;
He’ll love His own to endless day.
At death, beyond the grave, He’ll love;
In endless bliss, His own shall prove
The blazing glory of that love
Which never could from them remove.
Which never could from them remove.
