Grace surrounds us, though we often miss it. The beauty of grace is it's effortless appearance. Think of a dancer who floats across a stage. Every movement is infused with grace. Though she leaps across the stage, or is lifted gently off the ground, the entire performance has a seamless quality, one that enraptures the audience from beginning to end. This is a visual display of grace, and it makes us believe we can do whatever we have seen, though when we try, we discover that grace is not as simple as it appears. Spiritual grace has similarities with visual grace; it too appears effortless and but it also must be practiced.
When I think about grace, I think about injury. Injuries prevent movement. Grace restores movement. "It is by grace that we have been saved," saved, as in salvation, salvation as in a healing balm placed on a broken body. It is by grace our wounds have been made whole. Not only whole, but our broken bodies and spirits are capable of having the same awe inspiring grace of a dancer. That is God's grace in motion. God's desire is that our bodies, minds and spirits be made whole and beautiful, as seamless and as smooth as any practiced routine. This is the grace we want. And it is free, but it's not exactly without cost. It has to be practiced, and practice has its own price.
Just as learning how to walk takes time and effort, so does moving with grace. Once we have mastered walking, we rarely think about it; it simply becomes a part of who we are. This is how God wants us to live grace, as an extension of our being. But this isn't how we always think of it. Many times we pray for God's grace to manifest itself in some area of our life, but we don't practice. We simply use the skills and abilities we have, believing they are enough, not hoping for anything more than we have worked for, but the grace of God is greater than our accumulated efforts. It goes beyond what we are capable of.
Our capacity for grace is equal to the grace we are willing to receive. Sometimes God's grace looks more like a curse rather than a blessing. To give a quaint example, I finished writing this note an hour ago, but by the grace of God my attempt was thwarted and all but the first three paragraphs lost. At first I was upset, but then I re-read the first three paragraphs. I can humbly say that while I employed my ability as a writer in the lost portion, I lost the truth of the first three. Grace is something practiced, even though grace is greater than our individual practices. Why is it so difficult to describe? Because grace is mysterious. It's a quality hard to define but easy to see. I am not a master of grace, nor will I ever master grace because grace cannot be mastered; it can only be lived and practiced.
Moments of grace cannot be captured, much like a performance cannot be captured. There is something about experiencing grace that movies, music and sports television cannot convey. It's one thing to see grace from a distance, its another to be up close and personal with it. Its like the difference between being in a fight and watching it on TV. When you're in the fight you feel the surge of emotion around you. You taste blood in your mouth, feel sweat drip off your skin, hear your breath coming out in spurts. Watching a fight conveys some of this emotion, but living it... Living it is another world entirely. We like watching grace, it makes feel like we've accomplished something, but living grace, tasting it in our mouths is a completely different experience.
The call of Jesus is to taste grace, not just watch it. God invites us into the ring, gives us the tools we need, the training to use those tools and the wisdom to make sense of it all. At least, that's the ideal. Sometimes we stumble into the ring, get beat up for a few rounds and then magically knock the other person out with a few seconds left. That too is grace, but it doesn't feel the same as hard fought grace. If living grace is the call to be a fighter, many of use shy away from the ring. We prefer to practice the drills, study the videos and watch someone else do it, but we're afraid of stepping in the ring. We don't want to come face to face with our opponent because we're afraid we'll lose. When we're too afraid to step in the ring, its because we don't know the love of God. Love chases out fear. God's love gives us the strength to embrace His grace.
I believe that fighting for grace is part of the experience of grace, yet I also know that grace is something given, not something fought for and earned. Like a dancer or a fighter, they would tell you they spend years practicing to be graceful; the same is true of those who experience God's grace in their lives. The more we practice grace, the more we have of it. If we never practice grace, we won't have it. But when we have none of it, and don't know where to start, all we have to do is ask, and trust in the love of God that he'll lead us where we need to go.
I love seeing grace in motion, whether it be in a cross-fitters pull-up, a basketball players lay-up, a fighter's well timed KO punch, the perfect note on a singer's lips or the rhythmic moves of a dancer. I love watching grace. But more than I want to watch grace, I want to have grace. I want to be grace-full. I don't want to float around effortlessly, that would be really weird, but I do want my life to reflect that which god calls to in me. God calls me to wholeness. He calls me to healing. God calls me to accept his grace, to practice his grace and to let his gift of grace transform me into something I will never be able to attain on my own. That's the price of grace, giving up our pride and accepting that grace is not something hidden within us, it sits outside of us entirely.
We absolutely have the ability for grace to be made manifest in us. We are fertile ground for grace to grow. And grow it will. Given time. Given practice. Give patience. No fighter ever became champion in a day, and neither will we magically become champions of grace overnight. But we must at some point, at some time, decide to train for grace, and then step into the ring and experience it made manifest.
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