Mercy vs Grace
I forgot to share this a while ago, and just remembered it today. It came from a little show Peter Heck put on a couple months ago... I can remember the basics, and that'll be good enough. Anyway, he gave an awesome explanation of Justice, Mercy, and Grace.
Imagine you're in a car on a highway. You're speeding, and you know it. A police officer pulls you over and writes you a ticket. Justice would be that he writes the ticket and makes you pay it like you deserve. Mercy would be that he writes the ticket and then decides that you don't need to pay it. Grace would be that he writes the ticket and then pays it for you with his own money.
Personally, I used to get Mercy and Grace mixed up a lot. The point here is that nearly nobody shows Grace (pays your debt). They only show Mercy (forget your debt). He then put it into perspective with Christianity. We committed a crime against God that's punishable by death. Every human being on this planet has done it. Justice would be to annihilate the entire human race to give us what we deserve. Mercy would be to simply forget about it... but God is Just. It can't just be forgotten about. Someone has to pay. God showed Grace by giving his one and only son to die in your place (one who had never committed any "crimes")... fulfilling Justice AND showing you Mercy at the same time, so you can live with Him forever when all is said and done.
This is interesting, because it make Christianity (not Catholic, I must say) the only religion where God does not require any work from you to atone for your crimes against him. Nothing you do can ever get you into heaven... not giving money to the church, no "balancing good and evil", not even converting people to Christianity will get you into Heaven. Nothing that you can think of to do will ever get you in... only by accepting the fact that we're helpless and that God atoned our crimes for us can we get into Heaven.
I don't know... it just really helped me put things into a bit of a clearer perspective.