Cultivating Grace - Our Spiritual Ally

Grace is divine unconditional love in action.

Grace may enter our lives as a profound revelation or gentle reminder. Twenty-five years ago I encountered grace and was stunned! It came upon me from nowhere while I was wrestling with feelings of inadequacy and guilt. A mystical stillness and loving presence enveloped me. I opened myself to its magic. In that moment I sensed a connection to something greater than myself. My narrow view of reality was shattered. I experienced a profound peace.

During the past 25 years I have often been a witness to this enchantment. It appears to be a spiritual resource that goes beyond Christian ideology. This benevolent force mysteriously interacts with individuals and the world. Spontaneously or summoned through petition, we receive divine acceptance, empowerment, and protection.

Grace operates behind the scenes until we awaken to its promise and potential. This dynamic reservoir of love is ever present and available to us. We may talk about it casually in a crisis: "By the grace of god I made it." "God was looking out for you." However, when the crisis is over, we often forget that something remarkable intervened. Once we acknowledge grace as a spiritual resource, we may decide to make it our ally by invoking its presence and acknowledging its assistance.

Grace Mediates Through Love

Grace intercedes in our souls and lives by accepting us unconditionally, empowering us to be more, and protecting us from harm.

Acceptance: Grace fractures feelings of shame, guilt, and inadequacy. It eradicates those ingrained self-judgments that prevent us from experiencing inner peace and personal empowerment. The unconditional acceptance grace bestows transforms our being.

A stroke of unconditional love takes us beyond our transgressions and character flaws. From this mystical perspective judgments appear irrelevant. The witness supersedes the judge. Right and wrong fade, making it possible for us to face the truth about ourselves. Simultaneously we accept responsibility for our choices and have positive regard for our being. Free of self-blame we will be able to see the true beauty of our wholeness and become mobilized to change what is within our power to change.

Our spiritual heart will open each time we are willing to love rather than judge or hate some aspect of ourselves. This openness enables us to be healed. Inner peace becomes a way of life when we master an attitude of genuine self-love.

Empowerment: When a life situation feels insurmountable, we ask for help. Grace empowers us with courage in order to take a risk, understanding to deal with a difficult person, faith to eliminate fear, comfort to soothe emotional wounds, etc.

Grace intervenes in our lives when we have reached our human limits. Struggling to overcome a personal obstacle, we ask for divine intervention. For example, it may take an act of grace to put aside an addictive substance (alcohol, food), addictive belief (self-doubt, self-blame, paranoia) addictive emotion (anxiety, anger, depression, bitterness), or addictive behavior (helplessness, aggression, irresponsibility). When we find ourselves unable to accomplish the impossible, we invoke a Higher Power. We wait in a state of openness for the reinforcements to arrive.

Grace empowers us to exceed our human frailties. We choose to cultivate this spiritual resource or leave it in a dormant state. However, grace alone may not be sufficient for us to sustain a new pattern. Creating lasting change requires the human will as well as divine intervention.

Protection: Grace intercedes in our life circumstances when we have been spared misfortune or carried through a crisis with ease. We escape disaster through an act of grace: A person sustains minor bruises from a serious automobile accident; a lost child is found unharmed at a county fair; and a father finds another job when hope and money are running out. When grace does not rescue us from a tragedy, it is available to sustain us through our emotional suffering. We pray for its comforting presence, or it spontaneously descends numbing negative emotions so we are able to function.

Because we cannot control everything that happens to us, we must be able to cope with the unexpected. If we rely on a benevolent force that is working with us, we will develop a profound sense of trust. The courage to be ourselves and navigate our course will replace our need to control life from a fear-based reality. We will be able to respond to misfortune without getting stuck in blame and bitterness. We will trust the flow of life even when we cannot understand why.

Grace offers inner guidance. If we have developed our intuition, we are able to hear the inner messages guiding us toward self-actualization. This guidance may spare us unnecessary turmoil and grief. There are times when we are spared disaster even when we are not listening. We have a tantrum because we are delayed getting to a job interview. This delay protects us from driving over a bridge that collapses during an earthquake. With or without our conscious awareness, a mysterious benevolent force mediates outcomes.

Grace Becomes Our Ally

A spontaneous experience of grace happens in a moment of openness, conscious or unconscious. Grace intercedes when we are available, not perfect. It cannot be earned by striving toward some perfectionistic ideal. We secure grace as our ally by acknowledging its existence, giving thanks when it touches us, invoking it by request, and having faith in its mystery.

Acknowledgment: Grace is present in our souls and lives whether we recognize it or not. Those who refuse to perceive it have denigrated this spiritual reservoir through ignorance. Those who are willing to accept its possibility are participating with the mystical. Whether we believe in it or not, grace is an underutilized resource. It is a force waiting to be harnessed and channeled into our lives. Claiming its presence, we will witness miracles.

Gratitude: Each time we suspect grace is present we should express gratitude. If our body is spontaneously released from cancer, give thanks. If we narrowly escape a car accident, give thanks. If we are given an insight that enables us to make a difficult change, give thanks.

Grace remains steadfast if we are filled with gratitude. It becomes a lifeline and is there when we need it. From a logical perspective grace acts in irrational ways; yet, it knows when to rescue and when to leave us on our own. In addition, rescue does not always come in the form we would like or in the time frame we desire. But if we remain open to its promise, grace will guide, comfort, empower, and protect us.

Invocation: We invoke grace by asking for divine intervention to spare us from a negative consequence, i.e., save our marriage, heal our child, or keep our job. We may also request what we lack personally, i.e., patience, courage, focus, humor, tolerance, and discipline. Grace will flow to us consistently if we are willing to relinquish controlling outcomes and withholding righteous judgments.

We do not ask grace to change someone, but rather help us understand or influence them. Controlling another adult "for their own good" is not an expression of love. When we ask for something to happen for the greater good of all concerned, we allow grace to bring love into the situation rather than greed, vengeance, domination, etc. And when we ask for protection for ourselves or another, we let go of the fearful striving to control the situation. In the letting go, grace takes over.

Faith: Faith is the necessary ingredient that allows grace to become a part of us. Our first few encounters with grace introduce us to the presence of divine love working within our lives. Its development from possibility to companion depends on how much credence we give this mystery.

If we are willing to believe, grace will become a way of life repeatedly lifting us from the havoc we create or tragedy we attract. If we relapse into some addiction, grace does not abandon us. If we are not spared some catastrophe, we may feel betrayed or punished. Grace remains a possibility even then. Once we are willing to receive help, it will guide us out of our bitterness and despair.

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After that first spontaneous experience of grace, I have witnessed its presence many times. When it would intervene, I could not predict. But with gratitude, faith, and persistence, grace became my ally. A spiritual presence often lifts me into an expanded awareness of my reality. In times of trouble grace sustains me in a rapture of trust and peace. And, when least expected, magic happens within myself, my clients, or my life.

When we open ourselves to this mystery, it will lift us beyond the limits of human love into the miracles of unconditional love. We cannot predict when or how the power of grace will touch us. All we can do is ask for help, wait with an open heart, and allow the divine to intercede in its own time and its own way.

If we are willing to love rather than judge, grace will follow us. If we have faith that a benevolent force is guiding us, grace will continually bless us. If we have gratitude every day, grace will grow in us.