Grace for the Rat Race

March 2, 2026

“The trouble with being in the rat race is that even if you win, you are still a rat.” Lily Tomlin’s quip captures the futility many feel in life’s endless grind. Eddie Murphy adds, “Seventy-five years. That is how much time you get if you are lucky. Seventy-five winters, spring times, summers, and autumns. When you look at it like that, it is not a lot of time. Do not waste them. Get your head out of the rat race and forget about the superficial things that pre-occupy your existence and get back to what is important, Now!” Bette Davis observed, “In this rat-race everybody’s guilty till proven innocent!” Margaret Halsey notes, “The great disadvantage of being in a rat race is that it is humiliating. The competitors in a rat race are, by definition, rodents.” Hugh Nibley warns, “Nobody loves the rat race, but nobody can think of anything else. Satan has us just where he wants us.”

The “rat race” got its name from the wheel where pets, like mice and hamsters, run for exercise. No matter how hard the rat runs, it ends where it started. It is like we are chasing success, security, and as much stuff as we can accumulate, but it usually looks like we are spinning wheels without true progress.

Yet Grace offers escape. I like these two acronyms to remind me of God’s Grace and love. The definition of Grace is God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. This means that Jesus paid the price for our sins by dying on the cross for our salvation - Grace. This acronym is simple, “ABCDEFG.” All who Believe in Jesus Christ shall have eternal life. This is not Deserved or Earned. It is a Free Gift of God’s Grace. It looks a lot like John 3:16.

Our experience of Grace can come in three forms: prevenient (chasing), justifying (salvation), and standing (sanctifying). The first, “Prevenient Grace”, is God chasing us like the Hound of Heaven. Taken from Francis Thompson’s poem, it depicts God pursuing relentlessly, even when we flee. Jesus exemplifies this with the scribes and Pharisees who were the religious leaders that regularly opposed Him. He confronted their hypocrisy, calling them to repentance.

One Pharisee, Nicodemus, was intrigued by the itinerant preacher. He sought Jesus out one night, presumably so the other Pharisees wouldn’t know (John 3:1-21). Jesus explained that Nicodemus needed to be born again. He was chasing Nicodemus’ soul in this encounter. Nicodemus wouldn’t get it that night, but seemed to over time. Nicodemus defended Jesus (John 7:50-51) and helped bury Him (John 19:39-40). God’s Grace pursues us until we respond.

Justifying Grace is salvation. It is when the Hound of Heaven has chased us down, we confess our sins receiving God’s forgiveness through Christ’s death on the cross, and we are born again, saved for life eternal in heaven with Christ. The New Testament overflows with such stories. For example, God went to great lengths to get Paul to preach in Philippi, so that a woman from Troas named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth, would hear him, and believe (Acts 16:14-15). Her wealth as a businesswoman would strengthen the church in Macedonia, and it would become Paul’s favorite church.

Finally, Standing or Sanctifying Grace sustains our faith journey daily. Romans 5:1-2 states, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now STAND.” The ongoing work of Grace in our lives sanctifies us, or makes us more righteous and holy. God loves us too much to leave us where He finds us. God wants to see our lives lived victoriously over the sins that once bound us like a ball and chain to the past.

The apostle Peter confessed that Jesus was the Messiah at Caesarea Philippi (Matthew 16:13-20). Perhaps he thought he had somehow arrived, but the sanctification process was just beginning. Though Peter boldly declared his loyalty at the Last Supper (Matthew 26:33-35), he would deny Jesus three times, weeping at his failure and denial of Jesus (26:69-75). Yet Jesus restored him to leadership after His resurrection (John 21:15-19). At Pentecost, filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter preached boldly (Acts 2), leading thousands to faith. He went from failure to pillar of the church through God’s standing/sanctifying Grace.

Look at the opening quotes again. Which one resonates most with your rat-race experience? Why? How has God’s prevenient Grace “chased” you in life? Share your justifying Grace story, and find a way to share it with someone else? How is God sanctifying you in the daily grind this week? Let God’s Grace capture you completely that your life will exalt our Savior, Jesus Christ. (To learn more about Al Earley or read previous articles, see www.lagrangepres.org. You can purchase my book, My Faith Journal, at Amazon.com, a compilation of 366 articles as a daily devotional. Check out my podcast on YouTube, called “My Faith Journey”).