Living in Grace

The word Grace appears in many religions. Whilst the word Grace may be a finite idea, as a word I believe it is an idea that is seeking us. We may struggle for the meaning of Grace through the use and understanding of a single word. But ultimately, grace is a deeply personal ideal. Grace will at best be a poor vehicle to describe such a deep and potentially Infinite idea. And with that in mind I shall share a few thoughts on what living in Grace means to me.

Perhaps a definition to start with is that Grace is the Divine nature. When we are living in Grace we are aware of the Divine nature within us. We are each individualized aspects of the Divine. Our natural condition, the state that God would want us to live within is one of Grace. However, it is the tension of separation that pulls us away from this ideal.

You may have felt Grace in the past. It might have felt as a lightness, as if energy and electricity coursed through your entire body, as though your sight were filled with a white haze, or all that you saw was on fire. Or maybe you felt complete and blessed? Whatever the feeling that Grace has expressed itself within you it strikes me that the definition of grace remains a deeply personal experience, unique in subtle ways to us all.

Perhaps you have felt as though Grace were working in your life and that you were a witness to it, marvelling at the effortlessness with which things seemed to magically come together? Whatever the expression it is my belief that we are most likely to experience Grace when we surrender. When we can place our desires, our need to make others understand, our urge to control and grasp at power, we begin to clear the way for the Divine to work through us. In such moments it is almost as if we are getting out of the way. Perhaps the art of observing life, and being still within that which passes about us, is to become the witness. A witness can observe what is taking place.

The more we learn to surrender and allow ourselves to witness the world the more we can learn to release attachment to the urges of self to control and influence events and others. When we truly surrender we come to a place where we think first of how the Divine made all this come to pass. In such a state we start to recognize the effect and marvel at the cause.

As we come to behold the cause and recognize its Source we sense that everything is unfolding as it should be. Knowing that God is behind everything that occurs and unfolds is deep surrender. And with such awareness we enter a life of Grace. And when we are living in a state of Grace the Divine flows through us. A virtuous circle begins to operate through us and suddently effortlessness begins to be a core effect in our experience.

A teacher called Joel Goldsmith once wrote about the importance of being a transparency for God. In this place we do not give up our individual power or highest intentions. Rather we align our entire being consciously and mindfully to living from a place of the highest and best intention. Our sight of the Divine sits next to our awareness of the ego.

In such a state we can recognize the urges of the self and the unfolding of God, understanding that integrating both these urges is an idea central to our existance. If all was created by God, then the idea of the ego, of individual personality seeking to survive within the experience called this world, was also created by God.

Ernest Holmes, the author of the Science of Mind, once wrote the following. "How much can any man experience? As much as he can embody. These is nothing fatalistic about this. We are so constituted that we can continuously increase our embodiment. We grow in grace, as it were. We grow in power annd theoretically there should be no limit to that growth. But right today we can expect to demonstrate, or to have our prayers answered according to our belief and the embodiment of that belief."

And now that you have read these musings of what I believe Grace to be, ask yourself the question, What do you believe it means to grow in Grace? And then, mindful of your thoughts and feelings, consider how you are allowing Grace to manifest in your life?