🍓Ordinary Grace: What is it?

Year of Breath: There's nothing you have to do.

God’s grace tells us we’re beloved children — a title we don’t have to earn or work for.

But as I write in Every Season Sacred, we’re constantly absorbing a counter-narrative that says we are what we do.

As parents, we’re bombarded with endless options to fill kids’ schedules, beckoning them to go and do. While structured activities and even screen time have their place, downtime has its benefits too. This goes for the youngest and the oldest among us. 

When we partake in the holy work of slowing down and simply being, we become aware of where we may extend ordinary grace — and where we’re receiving, again and again, the grace that God lavishly pours into the nooks and crannies of our seemingly ordinary lives.

We can pay attention to our inner worlds and to what’s going on all around us.

“The grace-filled love of God, uniquely manifested in Jesus, gives us a new identity, purpose, and mission,” writes Dominique Gilliard. “Through it, we become children of God, colaborers with Christ, and ambassadors of reconciliation.”

What is Grace? (My favorite definition.)

“The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn’t have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It’s for you I created the universe. I love you.”

Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Seeker’s ABC

For When We Doubt in Ourselves