Incidental Graces (2.0)
Oh love the fires the sun
Oh grace that sustains such power
Keep me burning!!!
What is Grace? And what is it not?
“It does not mean that we suddenly believe that God exists, or that Jesus is the Saviour, or that the Bible is the truth. To believe that something is, is almost contrary to the meaning of grace."Furthermore, grace does not mean simply that we are making progress in our moral self-control, in our fight against society. Moral progress may be a fruit of grace; but it is not grace itself and it can even prevent us from receiving grace...And certainly (grace) does not happen...so long as we think, in our self-complacency, that we have no need of it. Grace strikes us when we are in great pain and suffering, discontentment and restlessness. It strikes us when we walk through the dark valley of an empty and meaningless life. It strikes when we feel our separation is deeper than usual, because we violated another life, with words, with actions. It strikes us when our disgust for our own being, our indifference, our weakness, our hostility, and our lack of direction and composure have become intolerable to us. It strikes when, year after year, the longed for perfection of life does not appear, when the old compulsions reign within us as they have for decades, when despair destroys all joy and courage. Sometimes at that moment a wave of light breaks into our darkness, and it is as though a voice was saying: ‘You are accepted’, accepted by that which is greater than you, and the name of which you do not know. Do not ask for the name now: perhaps you will find it later. Do not try to do anything now: perhaps later you will do much. Do not seek anything; perform anything; do not intend anything. Simply accept that you are accepted! If that happens to us, we experience grace. After such an experience we may not be better than before, and we may not believe more than before, but everything is transformed. In that moment, grace conquers sin, and reconciliation bridges the gulf of estrangement. And nothing is demanded of this experience, no religious or moral or intellectual presuppositions, nothing but acceptance.
“In the light of this grace we perceive the power of grace in our relation to others and to ourselves. We experience the grace of being able to look frankly into the eyes of another, the miraculous grace of reunion with life.
~~~~~~
Paul Tillich in “The New Being”
via Rajiv. Thank you my friend.
I especially like that he gives it no religious twist nor intellectual analysis.
Grace is like an accident. You can't seek it, you can't force it, you can't even imagine what it is like to be struck by grace
With grace it's as if something emerged from nothing, a miracle that, in retrospect seems to assimilate itself into the natural order of things so perfectly as to seem utterly and obviously true and yet a moment ago, it never existed to you or perhaps in the world either. And yet here it is. You see the difference now, there is a shift in consciousness from the inside looking out but it's not a physical change. And more, it is not yours alone but yours as well as the world's at the same time. So there is no possessiveness or pride.
wow! Very insightful. As ever!
I like that!
Life is full of incidental graces, whether we see them coming or not. Their arrival is accidental and yet somehow mysteriously intentional. And they are totally unconditional. I used to think that they are like gifts, manna from the sky, gifts from God to his people each morning. But now I see that those incidental graces broadside any and all people unexpectedly, not because it is deserved or earned by right thinking or right belief. Like the rain, it falls on believers and non-believers, theists and nontheists, the rich and the poor, those that think they deserve it and those that know they don't; something that falls from somewhere greater than us, not just humans but everything, living or not, just because. We are sustained in a world of mystery and absurdity for no more reason than that we are here. Anonymous, accidental, incidental, and unconditional, without demands and without any expectation.
Yes, it has the appearance of being completely arbitrary, as if God was working according to his own plan, tweaking the balance a little here and then a little there. And though we know it happens, it happens in such subtle ways that it goes uncelebrated. Grace is the purest private event bringing a feeling of redemption where even decades of public prayers in a public place of worship could not or, for that matter, even decades of being a total atheist or realist could not
Honestly, I feel this phenomenon should be studied and understood more. It fascinates me
Ron Irvine:
I wonder if this is the power and creative energy that bursts from the emptiness of the "space between" that we now know is vibrant with intelligence and sustenance; the "space between" that is both empty and not empty. Could this be our ground of being?
And again, Rajiv, synchronous minds from both sides of the earth. Thanks for reposting.
Although world weary . . . the winds of grace intertwine with the resilience of the soul to carry the spent traveler forward without coercion, ever so gently, ever so compassionately, ever so imperceptibly. For me, it is only through silence and listening that this awareness comes to be.
Is this not resilience only, but also synchronicity, sustainability; the creative power of creation and innovation seen among all living creatures and throughout the universe?
Could this power, energy, and sheer intelligence be:
The hunger that drives the predator?
The photosynthesis that triggers a flower to grow?
The attraction of the sperm and egg that causes fertilization?
The forces of the universe that bring all things into alignment, orbits, and organized patterns?
Could incidental graces have as its
Source our ground of being,
Emitting a synchronicity of forces
from that which is greater than all?
Could it be the great beauty that fills all that is,
saturating, pervading, replenishing,
and exuding from the space between;
Enveloping and engulfing all that is?
Could this be why we have
not yet self-destructed???
Could this be our essence, our source;
neverending, universal, unconditional love?
I’ve been pondering the concept of incidental graces for 15 years. My understanding has deepened and yet become bigger and greater and more pervasive. I often reflect on my own thinking back then compared to now. Here is part of that blog post, from January 31, 2009, that stood out:
When we look at life, what do we see?
When we look at life, do we See???
Life is full of moments of sweetness, coincidental kindnesses, incidental graces. Sometimes it is a comment from a friend or coworker, sometimes it is timely assistance, sometimes it is the sunshine after the rain, a rainbow, the wind in my face, a sideways glance of a child, a smile . . . oh the smile. After going through several years of such darkness of the soul that one wonders if light can even exist there anymore, the kindness of friends and family; unexpected, unpredictable, seemingly random and unrelated . . . leaves me in wonder and tears.
Can we “See” or do we just “see”?
Seeing with the Heart
June 6, 2013
Living life with open hands is an outward expression of the inner work of opening the heart, mind, and will. This opening up requires open eyes and open ears that see and hear with the heart . . . a “Seeing” (and “Hearing”) that goes beneath the surface of actions, reactions, and interactions, habits and […]
October 12, 2011
“As a blind man, I think that I see a lot better than I did when I was sighted because I don’t really think we see with our eyes. I think we live in darkness when we don’t look at what’s real about ourselves, about others, or about life. No operation can do that. When you see what’s real about yourself, you see a lot. And you don’t need eyes for that.” (At First Sight 1999 Val Kilmer)
December 28, 2008
Grace sees beauty in everything . . . Grace sees goodness in everything . . . What once was hurt What once was friction What left a mark No longer stings Because grace makes beauty Out of ugly things Grace makes beauty out of ugly things. ~ Bono. Embedded in all of creation, interwoven through history, underlying all creative action, anchored in all human expression is beauty.
November 20, 2008
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” (Marcel Proust). “Little round planet In a big universe Sometimes it looks blessed Sometimes it looks cursed Depends on what you look at obviously But even more it depends on the way that you see” (Bruce Cockburn, Child of […]
April 23, 2007
“Awareness of what presents itself to me involves a double movement of attention: silencing the familiar and welcoming the strange. Each time I approach a strange object, person, or event, I have a tendency to let my present needs, past experience, or expectations for the future determine what I will see.”
