Bloggers Note: My cousin Leslianne made a thoughtful response to my posting Simply Grace two weeks ago and it seemed too important to leave in the comment section. Here it is and the conversation on Grace can continue:
What a great illustration.(referring to Simply Grace) I wonder, though, if it is not so much that we would “rather work or pay to earn what we get,” but rather, we are scared to death of grace. If I receive something from you, that means I will owe you something. (It doesn’t matter that you and I don’t think that way. . . it’s all in the perception of the perceiver.)
If I accept grace, whether from you or from God, what then is expected of me? If I take your ticket, am I going to have to sit next to you and be uncomfortable because I have nothing to give you in return?
We say all the time God’s grace is free. Maybe it is more accurate to say God’s grace is freedom, because the truth is God’s Grace comes at a fearful cost — the cost of losing yourself. The cost of obedience to the Potentate of Time. (Now there’s a blog subject for you.) Nothing we have, not even our first waking moment belongs to us. Once we accept Grace, we cannot ignore that truth.
In that, of course, is perfect freedom — freedom to be all that God calls us to be; Freedom to say ‘no’ to things that would harm ourselves or others; Freedom to seek the common good; Freedom to connect to that spark of the Divine that is engulfed — held prisoner by our human nature; Freedom to be our best selves doing justice, loving kindness and walking in kinship with our brothers and sisters, and humbly with our God.
As long as we are living this life in these bodies in this world, dying to self does not feel “free.” However, that is GRACE.
Bloggers Note: Leslianne Adkins Braunstein is an ordained minister and lives in Washington DC. Her heart has embraced the children of her cousins and sibling and she loves all things sushi.
Related Articles
- True Grit, God’s Grace & 2011 (communicatingacrossboundaries.wordpress.com)
- Simply Grace (communicatingacrossboundariesblog.com)
Marilyn R. Gardner 
I read this right after seeing Les Miserables, one of my favorite earthly pictures of Grace, and I feel like you have poetically written how I feel after seeing the musical. Have you seen it? Thanks for this beautiful reminder of true Grace.
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Good morning, yes I have watched Les Miserables a couple of times but it has been a long long time now, It was my father’s favourite movie. Later I watched it with my kids.
I remember we had ‘The Bishop’s Candlesticks” in our English Reader when we were kids, till then I had not been introduced to Les Miserables.
It is strange how through the internet we meet kindred spirits. :)
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It is inconceivable to me to even think of escaping God’s Grace, why would one want to escape it anyway and how does one escape it???? God’s Grace is showered on us even before we are conceived, I think and continues through every nano second of our existence on Earth and beyond that into the hereafter.
In the peace and darkness of the night when we find rest in sleep, in the morning light when we wake to a new day, in all that surrounds us in our families, in our sustenance, in our environment, in our workplace. Love, Knowledge, Contentment, health, prosperity, the list is endless
Everything we receive, every breath of air, comes with God’s Grace.
Our souls are tied to His Divine presence and will always be.
I receive God’s Grace with open arms and a hungry heart mind and soul. I embrace it and am grateful for it every moment of my life.
How truly Kind and Merciful and Loving He is. We will never ever truly know all the ways in which He has granted us His Grace.
Thanks Marilyn for these moments in my life which I spent thinking about God’s Grace to me. Yes for even this post from you which I opened this morning I feel is part of His Grace.
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So pleased you shared this. Wonderful message.
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So glad you felt the same Linda. That’s the beauty of this blogging deal – it brings about these thoughts and comments that are perfect for moving the conversations forward.
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