- TWIL (This Week I Learned)
This week I learned about grace. Have you ever needed grace? It kept popping up for me as my week progressed especially as I contemplated how to cultivate humility in a broken world. I honestly think the answer might be grace.
Extending grace to ourselves and to people around us. Noticing grace and what I like to cal “capital G Grace” when we see it.
It’s always felt weird to me that grace is both unmerited favor and effortless beauty. This week, though, I noticed several times when Grace entered the room and suddenly, everything seemed proportional, moving and shifting into a more beautiful state without any effort.
There was a particularly awkward, ungraceful segment in my day yesterday — a difficult conversation that had no helpful easy ending — one of us left to run errands and go skateboarding, while I decided to sweep and mop the stairs.
In those two actions Grace entered and an uplifting buoyancy remained. I thought to send a text asking if any support were needed, the reply came thanking me but skateboarding was the present cure.
It was such a simple moment in my day and ordinary. I was aware of Grace and I firmly believe that awareness helped me shift my state from one of mild, low-level anxiety to one of service, offering grace.
2. Quote
“Grace can neither be bought, earned, or won by the creature. If it could be, it would cease to be grace.” – Arthur W. Pink
“For grace is given not because we have done good works, but in order that we may be able to do them.” – Saint Augustine of Hippo
“Courage is grace under pressure.” – Ernest Hemingway
“Showing grace to others is about showing kindness even when they don’t deserve it.” – Dawn Klinge
3. Prompt
The quotes I chose today are truly my best effort to find ways of conjuring grace, explaining the unexplainable.
I think it is grace that will save us when we are told to “be kind” but really feel suffocated by trying to be kind to someone so obviously undeserving of our kindness.
I think grace will be the hope that saves us from numbing addictive behavior as we move through challenging times.
What role has grace played in your life?
4. Quest
Notice grace. Notice every time you see effortless beauty (an eagle, a leaf falling, a cloud). Notice every time you see a person without resentment, effort, or loud clanging do a kind action. Grace is quiet, effortless.
5. Level-UP / Go Deeper
Yes, give grace.
