I love everything about my iPhone. Everything except Autocorrect.

You might think I would love a feature which automatically corrects my typing. I’ll admit it really is amazing how accurate autocorrect can be in fixing my myriad mistakes. Sometimes I can’t believe how intuitive my phone can be in figuring out what I’m trying to type.

What I don’t love is how much I depend on autocorrect. I’m afraid of how desperately I need it to fix my mistakes.

Without autocorrect, an average text message from me such as this one:

Would end up looking like this one:

A lot of people complain about the things autocorrect gets wrong. Often times autocorrect replaces the word you’re trying to type (hamburger) with another one out of left field (heart transplant). In fact there’s a number of blogs dedicated to Autocorrect Fails (caution, lots of strong language/crude humor on those if you go searching for them).

What scares me about autocorrect is how much it gets right.

Autocorrect teaches iPhone users to be complacent with their typing mistakes. After all, someone will be there to fix them. I can make all the mistakes I want, and I don’t even have to ask my phone to fix them.

Sometimes I feel like autocorrect is a hindrance to my intelligence. I don’t even have to try to type well anymore. No matter what mistakes I make, I know autocorrect will never stop showing grace to me in cleaning my words up.

It’s a nasty side effect of grace. When grace is unlimited and unearned it’s easy to take it for granted.

Jesus witnessed this first hand. One time He healed ten men of leprosy.

Leprosy – one of the most devastating diseases on the planet. Leprosy – a disease where there was no cure. Leprosy – the disease which basically turned you into the walking dead.

Jesus gave ten men with a death sentence a new lease on life. Out of those ten men, only one of them ever came back to say, “Thank you.”

Nine out of ten people who were completely healed of their devastating disease took the grace Jesus showed them for granted. How can that be?

When you are granted a gift you don’t deserve it’s hard not to take it for granted. When you’re granted a gift time after time day after day over and over again like we are with God’s grace, it becomes second nature. It becomes expected.

I don’t want God’s grace to become like autocorrect. I don’t want to keep making mistakes just because I know God will clean up my messes.

I want to return to Him in thanksgiving for everything His grace gives me. I want to be challenged by the freedom of God’s grace to live a better life.

Grace should not be an autocorrect solution to our sins. Grace should be an automatic reminder to return to God and give thanks for all it covers.

What grace have you been taking for granted lately? How do you battle the side effects of grace?