There but for the grace of God, go I. And that says it; the grace of God.
At night, when I thank God, I thank Him for His grace. Those, who practice it, say grace before and after meals. My old friend Joe and I often talk about it; grace. We say someone is graceful; it means full of grace. Unlike awful, which once meant full of awe, graceful has not fallen in the language. We sometimes speak of others as being in the state of grace.
What is it?
One definition describes it as unmerited assistance coming from God. A gift freely given us. That seems to describe what happened in coming to this program. I surely had not merited anything. I had not earned the gift of sobriety. If anything, if I got what I deserved, I wouldn’t be here. It had to be God’s gift to so many of us.
As I grow along spiritual lines, the more apparent grace seems to be. Nothing could describe why I am still here. It has to be attributed to God’s grace. When Bill speaks about returning to others, what was so freely given to us, he has to be talking about grace. We have to give it away to keep it. Allowing grace to flow through us to others. We’re not the source. Like a river, it cannot be damned up and kept away from others and held only for ourselves. If it is, like still waters it stagnates and becomes contaminated.
Sometimes the meaning is concerned with mercy or pardon. When I pray for God’s grace, sometimes that is exactly what I mean. The need for the grace to support me in all I do.
I think about this and wonder how I ever got through my life before AA and have to believe that God’s grace was always present though I could not see it or cooperate with it. It’s a miracle I’m even here. And that describes God’s grace; a miracle.
I often think about the prayer a friend of mine says: Thank you God for all you have given me, thank you for all you have taken from me, and thank you God for all you have left me.
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