The Flow of Grace

There but for the Grace of God go I. That is a phrase that just never made sense to me. As if God would withhold Grace from another person and yet grant it to me. That never felt right, based on what I have come to know of God.

About six years ago, I started writing about Grace – frankly because I never could understand the concept and never found a description of it that made sense to me. In the midst of that writing and meditation process, it suddenly struck me that if I turned the phrase around it miraculously made more sense to me.

There but for I, goes the Grace of God.

There but for I! In my writing about Grace it seemed to me that Grace is something we all have access to, something we can all be a channel for. What then if the only thing stopping Grace from flowing freely in the world was me? There but for I, goes the Grace of God. What if that person who is “worse off than me” would feel the touch of Grace if only I would open my heart and allow it to flow through me? What if just by looking at them and acknowledging them as a fellow person, a fellow expression of Spirit, what if by that simple act I could touch them with Grace?

That moment of recognition, of shared connection could be all it takes for Grace to flow freely between the two of us. And then what if the truth were that in that moment, Grace was also flowing to me, I was not just giving, but in the act of giving, also receiving Grace? Wow.

What then if all it takes to change the world is one moment of Grace? How would I act then? How would I look at each person I pass or interact with? What if every single moment is an opportunity for Grace? What if it’s not? So what! If it’s not true then what harm can it do to practice Grace anyway? And if it is true, what unimagined beauty could it bring? I, for one, am more than willing to find out. There, through me, goes the Grace of God.