Catalysts, Contrasts, and Companions

Grace confounds certain very natural human tendencies. We want to believe we are in control. We assume there are specific moves we can take to ensure that we are rewarded. We expect God's gifts to be doled out according to some recognizable plan.

But grace does not work that way. Instead, it teaches us to surrender to God. Not only are we not in charge, we don't have to be. We just need to stay open to receiving the sacred.

Receptivity, in turn, requires that we give up shame -- those persistent feelings that we are unworthy, that we don't deserve all that we have, that we're not as good as people assume, that we've messed up, that our whole life is a mistake. Grace doesn't listen to that litany. It isn't based on a scorecard. Grace happens.

Teachers

This spiritual practice involves noticing the "gracelets" in our daily lives, those signs of God's presence that indeed feel like gifts. Two of the most astute practitioners of grace are Madeleine L'Engle and Frederick Buechner

Madeleine L'Engle is a Christian writer who has sprinkled her books with tributes to a gracious God. She is the author of many novels, children's books, essays, poetry, prayers, and meditations on the scriptures. In her autobiographies she has shared details of her life in a family (The Summer of the Great Grandmother) and as a partner in a long marriage (Two-Part Invention).

Glimpes of Grace: Daily Thoughts and Reflections by Madeleine L'Engle with Carole F. Chase is a collection of 365 brief readings from this prolific writer's diverse works. Her interests in children, science, theology, family, ritual, and ecumenism are richly demonstrated here. The many graces of life are described in beautiful and reverent prose: the wonders of the natural world, the love in someone's eyes, the power of art, the riches of the imagination. Many things, she tells us, bear messages from the Divine. For example, "Bach's music points me to wholeness, a wholeness of body, mind, and spirit, which we seldom glimpse, but which we are intended to know.... It is a gift, sheer gift, waiting there to be recognized and received."

Frederick Buechner, a Presbyterian minister, has published novels, essays, sermons, portraits of biblical characters, as well as two collections, organized as dictionaries, of brief redefinitions of religions terms. He has also completed three parts of his autobiography: The Sacred Journey, Now & Then, and Telling Secrets.

Here's how he describes this spiritual practice: "Grace is something you can never get but only be given. There's no way to earn it or deserve it or bring it about any more than you can deserve the taste of raspberries and cream or earn good looks or bring about your own birth. A good sleep is grace and so are dreams. Most tears are grace. The smell of rain is grace. Somebody loving you is grace. Loving somebody is grace. Have you ever tried to love somebody?"

Buechner can find hints of grace everywhere, especially in his own experiences. It's not surprising, then, that a collection of excerpts from his writings, organized with a reading for each day of the year, is called Listening to Your Life. It is as good a teaching tool for this spiritual practice as you are likely to find.

Spiritual Exercises and Rituals

Get in the habit of acknowledging moments of grace in your life. When something happens unexpectedly; when a reward comes to you without your having worked for it; when you receive an opportunity you think you do not deserve; when you recognize an insight or a person's appearance as a gift, say "That's a freebie."

Create a ritual for a grace-filled time, such as when someone returns home from school, a trip, or a stay in the hospital. Sing hymns and read stories about grace. Have a grab bag filled with small wrapped gifts at the door.

Journal Exercises

Reflect upon this New Testament passage from I Peter 5:10: "The God of all grace... will restore, support, strengthen and establish you." Then write about experiences of divine grace when God has done one of these things for you.

In addition to recognizing grace when it happens to us, we need to be a grace in other people's lives. Don Quixote puts it well at the end of the play The Man of La Mancha: "I just wanted to add a measure of grace to the world." Write about specific ways you have added, or could still add, a measure of grace to the world.

Related Links

Simple Spirituality From A to Z
Mary Ann Brussat teaches how to transform daily tasks into enriching spiritual practices.

Reading into Things
Mary Ann Brussat, co-author of the book Spiritual Literacy: Reading the Sacred into Everyday Life, discusses the spirituality of one's encounters with the everyday world.

Eyes Wide Open
Frederick Buechner reveals how our openness to life prepares us to receive God's grace.

Of Dying and Living
Frederick Buechner's ruminations on death are deeply interwoven with his memories of life.