Grace has played an integral part in the unfolding of my life. The unexpected “gifts” bestowed by “God”. As I write this blog, what resonates more accurately is bestowed by the mystery that lives all things. For me the word God feels limiting. To many preconceived meanings.

Who is worthy of grace. Do you need to be worthy. Is every person on this planet all 7.753 billion of us worthy?  If you’re not deemed worthy, how does one become worthy?

Is one religion or belief system make you more worthy than another?

Being a vegetarian. Being a black, white or any person of color. Being rich or poor. Being a thief. A terrorist. A prostitute. A billionaire or a pauper. Being a Christian, Muslim, Hindu, or Jew make you more worthy? How does one get to the front of the line to receive Grace. It is my experience that God does not differentiate between so called good, bad or so called righteous people.

This blog post could elicit a lot of blow back or criticism since the subject of Grace is so interwoven into many religious beliefs. It is ultimately about how I experience my life. I in no way am attempting to invalidate someone else’s life experience or belief system.

I was raised as a reformed Jew.  Reformed Jews tend to have a very liberal definition of when it comes to biblical and religious meanings. Being a mensch might be good enough. Definitely a subject for another time.

Since Wikipedia is the authority on all things, I looked up both the Jewish and Christian definition of Grace.

The Jewish equivalent of grace as per the Old Testament is as follows.  The Hebrew term used is chen (חֵן‎), which is defined in Strong’s as “favor, grace or charm; grace is the moral quality of kindness, displaying a favorable disposition”. Judaism, for its part, is no less conscious of God’s grace, but it offers sanctification through membership in the Jewish people and by regarding the scriptures as teaching and enjoining a life of holiness.

In Christian terms, grace can be generally defined as “God’s favor toward the unworthy” or “God’s benevolence on the undeserving.” In His grace, God is willing to forgive us and bless us, despite the fact that we fall short of living righteously. 

I definitely don’t want to get bogged down in a definition of Grace. I just wanted to provide some perspective.

I order help those reading this blog understand the gift of Grace in my life, I would like to share my experience of what we call God. As my spiritual awareness continues to deepen and become more embodied, I am becoming increasingly more aware that any qualities we attribute to God have nothing to do with the mystery that lives all things. They are projections of the human mind. I might add, with a bit of wishful thinking thrown in. Human qualities that have been attributed to God. Some of them include being kind, loving, merciful, vengeful, forgiving. The list is long.

As my spiritual awareness becomes more embodied, I have a deepening experience of God as the creator or all life. All things. Everything. For me God is pure consciousness. This consciousness is expressed through the process of creation. For me, this mystery is unknowable. It can only be experienced, only be known through our interaction with what manifests for each one of us in the present moment.  For me this mystery defies any label that can be attributed to the totality of human experience.

There is one more piece in understanding how grace enters our lives.

The name of this blog is Lean Into Your Life. What that refers to is allowing your life to be created as a direct manifestation of your unique expression. Allowing the mystery of life to be expressed directly through the uniqueness of your being. The Mystery, plus you. Your life being created in this amazing unison.

Here’s the thing about Grace. For it to enter your life, you need to be engaged, active, creating. Not even perfectly. It won’t’ come sitting on a couch doing nothing. It happens in the interface of you living in alignment to yourself. That’s when Grace can enters our  lives.

Some examples of Grace in my life are: getting in Acupuncture school. Finding Man Kind Project and the community of men that support my life. Finding my spiritual teachers, Swami Lakshmi Devi and Brenda Morgan. Creating my functional medicine practice. Selling my practice. Finding medicine for the first time. Adopting my daughter.  The list is long. These are all defining moments in the unfolding of my life. They were all gifts of Grace.

This is a blog post that is already too long. There is a lot more to write, share and clarify.