Blessing like breathing - the way of natural Grace
Nov 21, 2019
Saying For Today: When you stop trying to get Grace, you will be found by Grace.
*Brian Wilcox. 'A Natural Grace'. Flickr
A young man, while roaming the desert, came across a spring of delicious, crystal-clear water. The water was so sweet that he filled his leather canteen, for he wanted to take some back to a tribal elder. The elder had been his teacher. After a four-day journey, he presented the water to the aged sage. The sage took a deep drink, smiled warmly, and thanked his student lavishly for the sweet water. The young man returned to his village with gladdened heart.
Later, the sage gave another follower a taste of the water. He spat it out, calling it awful. The water apparently had become stale because of the old leather container it was in. The student challenged the wise one: "Master, the water was foul. Why did you pretend to like it?"
The teacher replied, "You only tasted the water, I tasted the gift."
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I have had persons reply to me, when I gave them an unexpected gift, "You didn't have to do this." I have replied, and not jokingly, "If I had to do it, I would not have done it."
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I appreciate much the following story from Alan Cohen, in his The Grace Factor.
When Ayden Byle moved into Toronto’s Cedarvale neighborhood, he had a bright idea. Just for fun, he began to scribe inspiring thoughts on a chalkboard and post them in his living room window. "One simple hello could change everything" got passersby’s attention. "Is there any place better than here?" moved them to think deeper. Soon neighbors and commuters were going out of their way to walk or drive past Ayden’s window, hoping for an insight that might make their day more worthwhile. One day a sign showed up in Ayden Byle’s window that could make all the difference in a lifetime if the reader grasped its true message:
Grace trumps karma.
Karma, like God judging us and punishing us for sin, is simply an invention, a fantasy propagated by persons who do not appreciate Grace as Grace, who see the Universe or God as quid pro quo. Both are mechanistic interpretations. These teachings lead to negative consequences in how we view and treat Earth, others, and ourselves. Many persons, indeed, based on this idea feel a deep sense of unworthiness.
Grace is free of the past. Grace is untouched by the ideas of "deserve" and "do not deserve." There is no wake from sin or wrong behavior trailing us that touches Grace. There is no quid pro quo. Life is too free to subscribe to quid pro quo morality. Life is so much more forgiving than we often are, in fact, Life is not separate from forgiveness, as though a choice is made to forgive in opposition to not-forgive. Grace is not other than graceful.
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I once was counseling a woman in a mental health clinic, Macon, Georgia, USA, who suffered from major depression. She was a Christian. So, one day, I looked at her, eye-to-eye, and seeing those sad eyes, I said, "Forgiveness is not something God gives you, forgiveness is your accepting that you're already forgiven." Continuing to look into her eyes, the sad eyes became lit with joy, the freedom and power of discovering that no one needs to forgive us for us to be free of the past, only that we accept the already of forgiveness. That is Grace!
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A major shift in consciousness has occurred, when we do not see some things as gift. Blessed are we when we can say, rather, "It's all Gift!" Then, you are not so much receiving blessing or asking to be blessed, as walking in blessing, blessing being your natural experience. Such is the gracefulness of Grace. Making Grace something apart from Life, hinders our appreciating this, however. We need to put Grace back into our lives, not see it as coming from outside our lives. Grace is the intimacy Life is.
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Sometimes I feel blessed, sometimes not.
Walking in blessing is not walking in the feeling of blessing, at least not until you live in that sense always. Now, whether anyone can do that in the body, I cannot say. I can say, the more you live in gratitude, the more you live in the sense of blessing, as though you are breathing blessing. Also, if you become awake to blessings, you will see them when before you missed seeing them. You are already being blessed much more than you see, but you can see, when you choose. Take your mind off yourself, and you will see Grace everywhere. When you stop trying to get Grace, you will be found by Grace.
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*The theme of "Lotus of the Heart" is 'Living in Love beyond Beliefs.' This work is presented by Brian K. Wilcox, of Maine, USA. You can order Brian's book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, through major online booksellers.
