“That saved a wretch like me?”

Perhaps there is no hymn more well-known in our world than John Newton’s “Amazing Grace.” The timeless emphasis on the love and goodness of God is still sung in churches all over America today. It is also the hymn that introduced an interesting word to many of us: wretch. The dictionary defines a wretch as “a despicable or contemptible person” and is the root of the word “Wretched.” The interesting thing is how often and where this word, which seems to be pretty well known in the C