How to Be a Grace Scholar

The most recent advances in the grace arena seem to be founded on self-help doctrines which permeated the Western culture during the eighties and nineties. Beneficial to the point of self-realization but seriously bereft of impact within a social context. This often leads many to journey into the discovery about grace in greater measure. However, the student of grace is often left in the lurch trying to find relevant examples of grace in action.

Permit me for a moment to offer to you one sure fired way to experience present-day issues of grace. Study what, and where, grace is not; study the depth of its lack in these matters; study the people and situations where there appears to be no visible sign of grace and then, maybe, you will finally comprehend the beginning of grace. But where to start?

There is one thing all of humanity shares: Shame. The particulars of its origin are not critical to overcoming it as much as recognizing that all of us feel “dis-graced” by it. Dis-grace, the disconnection from grace, is the litmus test of all grace involvement. Find where a person feels disgrace, or a society projects disgrace, and you now have an assignment to restore.

It is a short distance to travel from humility to humiliation and many experience this agonizing journey every day. People living simple lives doing simple acts being made simply foolish by simpletons for the simple pleasure of feeling superior. Grace is everything simple needs, and, more appropriately, wants.

The gnawing awareness of not living up to our fullest potential, or what more aptly might be called “condemnation,” is yet another area where grace finds slim pickings. Whether it is a charge against ourselves or exacted from a rival, condemnation extorts a toll of immeasurable vitality from a life.

So, what does grace look like in the midst of this? Consider the following:

Evon, is a balding, mid-thirties male living paycheck to paycheck with his girl friend Ray and her daughter Debbie. Evon hasn’t been able to hold a job for longer than six months due to the mental effects of severe abuse as a child and the self-medication he administers to numb the pain. Ray, who works part-time as a clerk for a medical supply house, wonders if the life she has been leading will ever make a turn for the better, since she wants more for Deb than what she is able to give her. She recognizes that Evon is not the best man for her but at least he keeps her from being lonely, unlike her ex-husband.

All together these are simple people living simple lives. What are your perceptions of them? As a good student, write out what you think about them. Where is their shame, humiliation, and condemnation? What kind of parents are they? What are your concerns about them individually and as a couple? What do you find encouraging about them? Be thorough in this study since grace is what we’re looking for.

Here now comes the test. Having examined the people to the best of your abilities, made a detailed critique of their potential areas of shame, humiliation and condemnation as individuals and a couple, when did you realize that your judgment of them was merely a projection of the shame, humiliation, and condemnation you’ve experienced in, and around, your life?

There was no criteria of right and wrong in this exercise, however, you made a judgment about them. This is the key of grace most miss. Grace does not mean there is no judgement when actions violate a law. But our concept of right and wrong, not what the law claims to be so, often overrides our tendency to administer grace because we feel obligated to judge first. Regrettably, our judgments produce more shame, humiliation, and condemnation in others than our intents to offer grace.

Yes, grace is a self-help tool. However, the meaning of this should be clear: Help yourself with grace before giving to others, because you can only give to the measure of the abundance you have received. Shame, humiliation, and condemnation can never produce more judgment than grace will cover. The key is knowing when judgment starts, we are often the one holding back the avalanche of grace which is coming.

Class dismissed.