“I do not understand the mystery of grace – only that it meets us where we are, but does not leave us where it found us.”  – Anne LaMote

Of all the choices we’ve talked about making these past several weeks, this one is in a league all its own.  Readily and willingly choosing grace (for purposes of honesty and full disclosure) has been a personal struggle for me – not only overtly, but in ways not so easily seen and understood.

Unconditional love is one thing – loving someone without expecting anything in return.  But extending grace – loving someone who doesn’t deserve it, who has gone out of their way to harm others, who has perpetrated evil for personal gain…. How can a choice like this ever become easy to make or done without the slightest bit of hesitation?

How can one be gracious to a person responsible for the death of someone you loved deeply?  How do you show mercy toward a spouse who has destroyed loving intimacy in a marriage by having an affair– devastating not only their mate, but showing disregard for their children and extended family in the process?  How can you offer grace and forgiveness to the greedy CEO that mismanaged your pension fund leaving it drained and depleted  – the money you counted on for your family in retirement?  What about the child molester who administers physical and emotional harm to their victims for a lifetime – only thinking about themselves first and their immediate gratification?  What about mass shooters who kill people at random in order to promote their own cause or to simply become famous? 

How is it possible for grace to flow in situations like this?  How does mercy even become something we consider choosing?

I believe it starts by coming to the conclusion that it isn’t humanly possible to do so – meaning that without God’s grace that starts and sustains the whole process, we would never come to the place of choosing grace on our own – strictly within the power of our own humanity.

When I’ve failed to choose grace in my own set of circumstances, when I have failed to give it to myself without hesitancy first, when I failed receiving it from others when I needed it most, it was generally due to being more intently focused on imperfect situations, imperfect people, and my own imperfections.

But when I turn my attention to the Source of Grace – focusing with intention on how it so easily flows to me without judgement, required restitution on my part, or handed out in small increments or rations of any kind, I begin to realize that the ocean of it that I have freely been given pales in comparison to the puddles of it that I have allowed to flow out of me toward others – including myself.

Funny how in my own human mind, I have what seems like a thimble full of it to dole out to others, but what has been poured into my own life in reality is like someone standing underneath Niagara Falls holding a 5-gallon bucket.  Water (or grace in this analogy) is always flowing, never stopping, and impossible to measure or contain.

Stop and think (really think) about all the blessings, all the gifts, all the undeserved, unearned aspects of life bestowed on you each day.  We act as if the heartbeats, the sensation of touch, the sounds of laughter, the beauty we see in the eyes of those we love…. that WE ARE the source and creator of those things and nothing my friend, NOTHING is farther from the truth.  Ego has us deceived that we are responsible for the presence of such grace when in reality, it rains down on us – pours down on us each and every day of our lives!

Now, add up all the weeks, months, and years combined.  Think about the grace that flowed over you in the hurts, the hardships, and the suffering – during the moments you couldn’t have made it on your own.  If it wasn’t for grace, none of us would be here.

When we begin to contemplate the amount of grace that flows to us continually and unending, we can begin to see it as a viable choice – starting with ourselves.  If you cannot give yourself some grace, well it becomes quite impossible to give it to others I’m afraid.

How much grace do you choose to give yourself each day?  Do you beat yourself up for thinking things you shouldn’t?  Do you often feel like you should be doing more or doing better than you are?

If you’re like me, no one is harder on me than me 🙂 And when I think about it, if I can’t even muster up the courage and wisdom to give myself grace each day, how can I even begin to let it flow THROUGH ME to others?

So, choose grace for yourself today 🙂 There isn’t a better place to begin!  You aren’t defeated, you are a child of God!  Your mistakes, your shortcomings, your self-imposed inadequacies have all been made right long ago, my friend.

Now that you have a picture in your mind of the grace that flows TO YOU, and you are RECEIVING IT daily – going easier on yourself by understanding how much you are loved, forgiven, and blessed in all your human flaws and imperfections, you can see how important it is to CHOOSE to let it FLOW THROUGH YOU to others.

How can we possibly stand under the Niagara Falls of grace, as it pours down on us in a thunderous fashion, and hand out thimbles of it to others?  Who are we to sit in judgement of who receives it and how much they receive?

If we are truly out to change those around us who need grace, those changes don’t occur through harsh judgments, unforgiving attitudes, or self-imposed verdicts.  If we CHOOSE grace, as Anne LaMote says so eloquently, then it never leaves us in the same place it finds us 🙂 We (and those who have done us harm) are never the same again.  And that my friend is why each of us are here in the first place – to grow, to change, and to become everything we were meant to be.

I hope that today you CHOOSE to see the Niagara Falls of grace that flows to you – that the tiniest of blessings are embraced and seen in their truest light and origin.  I pray that you CHOOSE to receive it for yourself today – feeling the love, acceptance, and renewal it brings.  And most importantly, I trust that you will CHOOSE to let it flow through you to others – allowing it to find them in the darkness of where they are right now – and never leaving them there or leaving them the same again.

God bless!