What is my experience of grace?
Last week, when collectively pondering whether we need to shift our habits, someone closed out his/her post with the following comment: “But even after all the controls, when is it really in our control? Here’s to grace–-to faithfully pursue and gently forgive ourselves along the way.”
I am curious about grace. I took a course on the subject some years back, and I still find the concept elusive. The suggestion here seems to be that grace—or the giver of grace—is the one in control: we should commit ourselves to “right living” but it is not ours alone (or at all) to achieve. Have you experienced that to be true? What, when, or how have you encountered grace? How would you even begin to define it?
Is it, for you, religious? Some would say that the notion of grace is what distinguishes Christianity from other religions, in that salvation derives from unconditional acceptance as opposed to merit-based favor. I’m not sure that is accurate, and I would love for people of various religious traditions to weigh in. What meaning does grace have across different religions, if any?
Of course, grace exists outside of religion as well. We hear the phrase “give yourself some grace,” which implies self-directed gentleness and forgiveness. Someone who moves with grace is elegant; someone who conducts him/herself with grace is poised. How do these secular definitions enhance our understanding of what grace is and how we experience it?
Let’s ponder together what grace is and what our personal experience of it is and has been…
Anonymous
August 19, 2018 at 8:16 pmThe concept of Grace is so simple that it is illusive….
We are all loved….that concept is so powerful….that it is hard for most folks to grasp….
Grace
Anonymous
August 20, 2018 at 4:21 pmNo idea how to define it but when I hear words like merit and achievement I think of grace as the opposite. but is anything ever really unconditional? do people only want grace when they’re wrong and otherwise they want justice?
Anonymous
August 22, 2018 at 1:22 pmGrace and hope and love are all entangled. Grace may be the source of the others, or maybe they are all the same.