Grace is the parent who picks you up at 2 a.m. without asking how you got there first.

The order of operations is the whole thing. Help first and questions later, or never, is completely different from being interrogated on the doorstep while you are still in trouble. Grace does not wait for an explanation, and it does not make the collection conditional on how you ended up there. You get picked up either way.

If you are in the middle of something you are ashamed of, go to God before you have the story straight. And when somebody comes to you in that state, get them home first. The conversation can happen on a day that is not this one.