What does grace mean to or has been experienced by you?
from cheese_greater@lemmy.world to nostupidquestions@lemmy.ca on 11 Jun 00:02
https://lemmy.world/post/48015041
from cheese_greater@lemmy.world to nostupidquestions@lemmy.ca on 11 Jun 00:02
https://lemmy.world/post/48015041
I was moved by a statement i recently heard about grace, and forgiveness, and understanding
#nostupidquestions
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“grace” is just not in my dictionary. it can be as simple as that
What definition of “grace” are we talking about? That word has a bunch of different meanings.
Just wat does it mean to you at this point in time without me supplementing or qualifying it further?
A word that has many different equivalents in my native language which is why without context it means nothing to me.
Forgiveness through compassion, with the understanding that turning the other cheek can mean looking the direction you want to walk away, as you do so.
Grace is an gift of trust. It’s a complicated thing because there’s always a danger it will be abused, but it’s essential to a healthy community because we have all failed, and all hurt people in the process, sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. You can’t have a community without trust though; you can’t have any real, human relationship at all without trust and so you grant someone permission, unearned and without reason, an opportunity to try.
The biggest danger of grace is that someone might mistake it as earned or deserved. By definition you can’t deserve grace. You have no right to it. You can’t demand it. No one owes you grace. It can only be gift. You can honour it, you can make the most of it, make it mean something… but even then, you haven’t earned it.
It’s also important to understand, grace does not absolve you of consequences. Consequences aren’t something that go away. Words can’t be unspoken, actions can’t be undone. There no ballance sheet for life where your choices get tallied up, even if we desperately want to think that way. What you bring in to the world is what you bring into it. The good, and the bad. The trust you’ve earned is always better for you, not always light, but always manageable… But the grace, the trust you haven’t earned is something different. Something you should always treat with the respect it deserves. You should always be a little afraid of grace because it can be heavy in ways it’s hard to live up to.
Me personally, I don’t give grace lightly. I don’t pretend to know who you should or shouldn’t give it to. I do my best to use my judgement, but it’s by definition not something you can’t know is going to be worth it.
I hope that’s what you were looking for.
The ability to see the right path and the self assuredness to walk it.
They do something with ease that would be difficult (mentally or physically) for the average person.
Caring about others when it is not prudent to do so.