Searching For Grace
This article explores different perspectives about grace. It begins with a Judeo-Christian background with the original meaning, then proceeds to provide explanations for other applications of Grace.
Background
This article puts forth some ideas about the concept of searching for Grace, both from a religious and non-religious perspective. We do this so that the reader can appreciate a wider range and grasp an initial understanding of how Grace may operate in one’s life. The intention is to open the reader to meaningful beliefs of Grace and the benefits of our posited perspectives. It is a starting point for some, and for others, a more deep excursion foraging into some elements of awareness of grace and the benefits which may be found from the insights.
Grace defined as blue silk
Image Details
This image is intended to have the observer think of Grace in a different context - blue silk.
We invite you to examine the imagery more closely and imagine the following:
Look closely at the design folds, the elegance demonstrated in the motion of the silk. Imagine perceiving the texture of the silk by placing your fingers on the folds. Look at the flat surface just to the right of the folds. What might exist in the darkness of the folds? It there a pattern to the folds? What has them move in a certain direction? What meaning can I gain from observing more deeply what may not come present in my first viewing of this image?
Just doing this simple exercise lets us perceive the diversity of how Grace can be understood...
Grace Is Attainable
There may be some who find the concept of grace disconcerting and unreachable: out of one’s grasp. Never mind that as human beings we perceive things differently for lots of reasons:
birthright,
economics,
experiences,
training,
education,
environment,
relationships,
etc.
No matter what your background or experience might contain, this article will present a number of viewpoints for you to consider, if you are willing to keep an open mind: check out some ideas that will help you focus your attention.
Grace Delivered
We will use grace is a few different ways by giving concrete examples with stories from our family, friends, colleagues and clients which are filled with content to highlight the following characteristics:
The unmerited favor of God or your higher-power, and/or
general favor or goodwill, and/or
mercy or clemency, and/or
the elegance of beauty, form, manner, motion or action.
Religious Belief
There is a fundamental belief which would be helpful to one’s understanding the general context of Grace. The Grace belief has as an outcome the bestowing of unmerited favor from the Divine, such that the receiver gains awareness, understanding and insights about a particular subject.
The Divine in our example reference could actually be a specific religious deity, either expanded by your own deity belief definition or not, or in the current day’s vernacular, it could be your own unique definition of your Higher-Power.
(Special Note) The concept of higher-power (HP) was coined in the 1930s and is used extensively today: especially within the AA context, where the source roots of HP also date back in the mid to late 1800’s. For those of you that wish to learn more about the historical foundations about deities and higher-powers, we have included our unique Wisdom Sidebar below, to allow further exploration into the topic with a few interesting sub-topics.
Wisdom Sidebar
| Note | Sub-Topic | Wisdom Sidebar Explanations & References | |
| 01 | The divine can be your own understanding of your deity from your particular religion. Please take your pick from the wikipedia's recognized religions of Baha’i, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Shinto, Sikhism, Taoism, and Zoroastrianism to begin your research. We invite you to explore the following as four examples: Click to explore wikipedia's ideas about Christianity... Click to explore wikipedia's ideas about Islam... Click to explore wikipedia's ideas about judaism... Click to explore wikipedia's ideas about Taoism... | ||
| 02 | Your Higher power | This inquiry will help you gain a historical perspective about a Higher-Power: Click for a wikipedia ideas on a Higher-Power... Click to read one of our articles on a Higher-Power... |
Measuring Insights
The insights gained, which has produced outcomes are measurable on our CAM Awareness Scale of 8.0 or above as new or redefined insight and understanding. It may come in the form of someone communicating their story and you gaining new awareness from their meaning to them, or not. It could go from you re-reading or hearing something in which the insight appears as new or a fresh perspective. And in many other ways too – we can think of at least ten different ways: how many can you think of right now? In any case, your awareness and this new understanding are measurable at 8.0 or above.
(Special Note) Our CAM Awareness Scale introduction (i.e. in the link in the above paragraph) provides a few ways to measure intangibles like a Grace Belief. However, you must first define a specific outcome and the particular measurements for that outcome. As an example, you could design your outcome measurements as:
CAM Awareness Scale 0 to 10 where:
0 to 4 = Gained an initial or global understanding but need more awareness
5 to 7 = Able to grasp the insights and see practical ways to use them
8 to 10 = Able to implement the ideas in possible ways in personal or work life.
The two subsequent sub-topics summarize the conditions and circumstances in unique abbreviated stories highlighting how someone was able to gain a Grace Belief.
Discovering an Unknown
An estranged brother dies, and the older brother begins to review his possessions and comes across personal journal writings which span years and many subjects the estranged brother was interested in pursuing. As the older brother begins reading the journals, he finds a person of great depth that he never knew. As the readings further unfold, he learns that his brother loved him profoundly and wrote about the qualities he saw in him and what it meant to him. The younger brother saw characteristics the older brother had no knowledge of or had even imagined about himself. The older brother began to appreciate both the writing skills and also the depth of understanding: it changed his mind about what had estranged them. Yet, more importantly, it gave new meaning to love and what he had missed by not connecting with his brother.
Grace showed up in a few ways:
he received new meaning and an appreciation for the thinking and substance of his brother writings;
he felt determined to allow his connections to understand how he thought about them and the reason for keeping close contact with family, friends, and colleagues.
Accepting Change
A man who has been healthy all his life suddenly finds himself on canes barely able to walk and is forced to take a look at how to cope with his health issues. Through a series of circumstances, the man goes from complete health to a devastating life change. He is hospitalized, unable to feed himself, lift his head off the bed, or even grasp a knife or fork. He goes from riding bicycles, hiking, usual mobility ease, and healthy activities to an almost complete stoppage.
The recovery period can take about two years. Remission in this recovery, means no physical crises occurring with normal physical strength and effortless breathing. He becomes paralyzed with fear about the future. And yet, he retains hope about a complete recovery because others have done it: he believes it possible and perceives it in his future. After some months, he regains much of his strength and begins the slow recovery process. Bumps do occur with some setbacks, but given his condition and circumstances, he has learned he can get back on the recovery track within 6 to 8 weeks.
The recovery process affords him time to ponder things: he begins to acknowledge how others take for granted their health, and he slowly realizes what treasures of insights he’s been given. He begins to appreciate the progress he is making in dealing with peripheral double vision and walking; he understands how time seems to have slowed down, and what wonders exist in silence. His life changes for the better because he has found grace in the little things of life. At times he is still gripped by fear. However, he has enriched his relationship with his HP and the essential people in his life. He feels like he has just begun to uncover other fascinating ideas about grace for himself. The table below shows some examples.
Wisdom Sidebar
| Note | Sub-Topic | Wisdom Sidebar Explanations |
| 01 | Allowing one to forgive "yourself" for a health condition that has no known cure but a sustainable mostly normal life with no clear understanding of how it was contracted, and that it is not one's fault, nor was it targeted as punishment for some past activity. | |
| 02 | Understanding more deeply | The particular health issue has helped awareness about many things, some of which include: 1. Accepting Handicaps (i.e. limitations, weaknesses and/or defects, etc.) - how to deal with them, how to accept that some things may be out of reach in the future, that they can allow you learn more about what you are really capable of doing, especially from the perspective of both participating and contributing to something worthy, pacing yourself throughout your day, week, month and year. 2. Developing Patience - which is a much needed belief to sustain a healthy and productive outlook on life in the face of adversity, doing daily activities which promote emotional peace and calm, thanking a higher-power for insights and new found abilities. 3. Living In The Present - a keen desire to make each day count, focusing on the important things one wants to occur during your day. |
Elegance Descends in Ways Unexpected
While elegance may be elusive for some, we invite you to look at some traditional ideas about beauty: form as a focus upon architecture and geometry; the manner in the practice of doing; motion with regard to language usage; and/or action in attempting to accomplish something. The reason for approaching the subject of grace with these ideas is simply to have you consider and evaluate new perspectives for yourself: this is only a starting point – others ideas will begin to surface after awareness comes present.
Grace as perceived in motion…
We are purposefully exposing you to ideas you may not have considered. From the perspective of beauty, most all of us recognize that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Yet who could deny how beautiful the image to the left catches your attention.
We also say that grace can be noticed in the manner in which you accomplish something or in other words, in the doing of it.
Image Background
This abstract design is made of colorful fractal clouds and graphic elements on the subject of the motion, whether it be observed in nature, art, design, or creativity. This image is intended to show grace in motion in a dramatic way; to invoke an emotional response by touching your senses…
Some common examples of this include:
The musician fingers the keyboard or the fret to produce magical notes and cords, evoking strong or subtle emotions.
The sportsman jumps high to have his basketball swish the net.
The writer strikes the keys with his fingers in defining the story he writes.
You can expand this list on your own…
Conclusion
While we have given you some ideas to consider about grace, we guess that you can think of many more ways to understand how grace operates in your own life.
We invite you to feel free to offer up your own suggestions and communicate with us, either through our contact us page, or at the bottom of this article.
