What do you think of the well-worn phrase, “There but for the grace of God, go I.”? Someone may say it when they pass a homeless man sleeping under the awning of a business at night or they see someone biking down the highway, bags of groceries dangling from the handlebars, or they see a handicapped person in a wheelchair. The phrase always seems to be applied to an individual deemed “in worse shape” than the speaker.The phrase, when studied, has a particular ring to it, like God loves the homeless person or the handicapped person or the bike-rider LESS that someone with a bed or a car or with a better working body. As if they are not benefactors of grace.
Or when someone says, “Uh-oh, I’ve fallen out of the good graces of…” Then it’s as if you must “earn” grace. But grace cannot be earned. It is freely given.
Personally, “grace” is one of my favorite words. I love how it feels in my mouth, tastes on my tongue, the warm, safe feeling it elicits. “Unmerited favor” or “favor rendered by one who need not do so”, or “clemency”, or “divine protection” – these are common definitions of grace.
To me, grace is that my heart and lungs and kidneys and liver do their thing with no effort on my part. Grace is a beautiful sunset. Grace is picking green beans off the vine. Grace is the deep peace that washes over me at unexpected moments, taking my breath away. Grace is falling into love. Grace is.
Life and all of its abundant graces is grace.
"Life begins at the end of your comfort zone."
Neale Donald Walsch
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