Embrace the Grace

It’s been a hard year for so many. Not only dealing with a once-in-a century pandemic that altered reality for so many, but the social, political and environmental turmoil of our times seems to have imploded into chaos at the same time we are grappling with new ways of living healthy and productive lives. But in spite of the difficult year we’ve survived, peering through the mess of the times, we can see flickers of sunlight piercing through the dark places; the divine grace that is pouring down upon us. The grace to deal, to grapple, to endure, to conquer.

Non-church folks don’t speak much about grace, unless it is to appreciate the graceful movement of a dancer or athlete, or the beauty in the graceful walk of a person; but that doesn’t even begin to describe this kind of grace I’m speaking of: God’s grace. If you look up the word as it relates to faith, you’ll read about grace being the unmerited, undeserved favor given to us even when we don’t deserve His favor - never mind God’s love.  And that is true.

But the grace I’m speaking of today goes beyond the theological cloud that surrounds the concept of grace, and reaches down to something a bit more earthy, and bit more real and tangible; a concept that can alter how you wrestle with difficult situations in your life: how not only to survive, but to thrive.

I’m speaking of a grace that imbues every moment of every day.  I’ve learned through difficult times in my life that God’s grace is the only thing - besides His love (and they are intricately intertwined) - that keeps me going day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment.  In those times that I can recognize His grace, and grab onto it, I can withstand anything: climb mountains, weep over the dead, endure yet another heartache or loss.  It is God’s grace that gets me through, each and every time.

But - I’ve also learned the hard way that His grace offered is not always recognized. And the grace He offers today to carry a burden or heal a wound will not be around tomorrow. St. Paul says it well: God’s grace is always sufficient for us, and God’s power to help us is most available, most evident, when we are at our weakest, our lowest, our most hurting times. (my paraphrase: 2 Cor. 12:9) The problem, of course, is that our weakest moments are exactly when we are most likely to be our most difficult selves: angry, sad, bitter, proud, hateful. I’ve been there many times; I know from first-hand experience.

When I’m wounded or hurt or angry, I am in no mood to stop and ask for God’s grace to “get through the moment”. My instinct is to lash out, to verbally attack; to avenge and defend, to protect my turf, to win. My pride demands a price; my ego requires justice; my mind exacts retribution. When I am in that place, God’s grace flows down, but I don’t even recognize it, never mind embrace it, and it dissipates into thin air, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. For in that moment, a small piece of my soul is dying. And in the aftermath of the storm, there is that small piece of dying soul within, dark and withering. And I’m left still weak, still angry, still hurting - and have the nerve to shake my fist at God and cry, “Where have You been? Why didn’t You help?” And thus begins the journey - from that place of hurting and woundedness.

The journey begins by the very grace that I’m writing about. When we sincerely ask, God walks us through this particular place of gracelessness, and patiently reveals deep truths about ourselves, resurrects those withered places, shines the light into that darkness. It’s not easy, but it’s doable. With His grace.

In order to truly uncover who we are underneath the wounding and hurts, we need to learn to embrace the grace. That means we first have to recognize it and acknowledge it as such: a favor extended by God to us, a supernatural heart-stance that gives us an out; shows us the means to rise above the pride, the anger, the lashing out. To do unto another exactly what we don’t feel like doing, whether it be to remain silent in the face of accusation, to refrain from insulting and hurtful speech, or to even extend forgiveness and allow the anger to subside, to vaporize into that thin air of argument and innuendo.

In the time of bitterness, because of someone’s betrayal, meanness or unkindness, to embrace the grace means an active reaching-out to the God within, knowing that grace is there for me, sufficient to the moment. That means that in that moment of strife and disappointment, I have available to me just enough grace to get through this one episode, this one heartache, this one tearful encounter. Is there enough for tomorrow? Not today. God gives us grace sufficient to the day; that is, just enough for today. Tomorrow’s grace will come tomorrow.

The challenge in this, of course, is to trust that God won’t be ignoring us tomorrow, that we can rely upon His promise for grace “sufficient to the day”.

The challenge in this, of course, is to continually let go of our need to be right, to defend our cause, to stand for what we want or believe in. I can only embrace the grace when I first let go of “me”. Only then, will I recognize the grace being offered. Only then can I embrace the grace pouring out from His hands.

The challenge in this, of course, is that we rarely are present in the moment. Our minds and hearts are always rushing ahead, planning our strategy for revenge, creating elaborate arguments and rationalizations for our actions. Our default is “just you wait…”, rarely wanting to take care of business today. To embrace the grace, we need to remember that God’s grace is “sufficient to the day”. There likely won’t be grace for this problem tomorrow; tomorrow will bring grace for tomorrow’s troubles. The key is to embrace the grace for today’s heartaches, bitterness, disappointments, and trust that tomorrow, enough will be given.

And the hardest challenge, of course, is to recognize that grace is freely poured out to us, no matter who we are, no matter our goodness or badness, no matter how well we “keep the rules”. Grace is truly undeserved. There is no measure of who we must be before we receive God’s fullness of grace, measureless, boundless, without reservation. There is nothing we have to do to get His grace other than let go of ourselves, and embrace it.

Embrace the grace. Today. For today’s troubles. Tomorrow will be a whole new day - with its own grace.