We Christians talk about God’s grace a lot. It’s central to how Christianity works. If you’ve spent any time around a church, you’ve probably heard it defined as “undeserved favor.”

This illustration might help.

You’re running a game of Dungeons & Dragons. You manage to herd your players into the villain’s castle for their first showdown. They navigate the halls, fighting back the guards and foiling a few clever traps, when they get to the hall with the encounter you have planned.

Behind the door at the end of the hall, you know, waits the villain’s personal bodyguard. The party has fought him before, but now they finally get to beat him. They’re already banged up, but that will just add to the drama. All is going according to plan.

That is, until one of the players declares that his character runs ahead of everyone and opens the door. Everyone gives him odd looks. “Dude, give us a sec to heal.” Oddly confident, he says, “No, no. I got it.”

Weird, you think, but you can work with it. The bodyguard spots him and lunges with his heavily enchanted halberd. “Okay,” the player says, “I tell him-“

“Um, you don’t really have time to say anything. He was waiting for you, holding his attack. You guys were kind of invading his master’s castle.”

“…oh.”

Wondering why that wasn’t obvious, you roll the bodyguard’s attack. 20.

You pause.

By rights, the guy should be dead. He’s already taken a bunch of damage, and a major character just delivered a critical hit. Besides, he just put himself and the rest of the party in danger with a stupid mistake, even after everyone tried to stop him. He totally deserves what he gets.

The thing is, you had plans for that character. He was crucial to an upcoming part of the story. And despite how much he annoys you and the party sometimes, you love that character. You see potential in him that no one else does, and you want to see him develop. You want to see him win.

“How many hit points do you have?” you ask him.

“Um… 12.”

You roll damage. With the critical hit, the total comes to 36.

“11 damage,’ you say.

Grace.

Take a moment and consider everything in your life that could have gone worse.