Chasing Grace

Why “Chasing Grace”?

Having Grace in your life is finding God in every detail… it is being loved and blessed every day in ways too numerous to count… and you can find that Grace inside yourself if you can just allow it to be so.

I was raised in a particular Christian faith, and when I reached maturity I found that I had many questions and concerns that would not and could not be answered by the leaders of this organized religion. I was told these things just didn’t matter and I should focus on the things on which I was told to focus. But there were some notions I found downright confusing and disconcerting, and could not perceive the logic behind them. And these things were “written in stone” and there was no discussion to be had about them. I finally left this faith, with much trepidation. I drifted away, and got lost. I felt I was just treading water in a huge ocean. What I needed was a boat, but I just couldn’t climb back into the boat that I had finally found the courage to jump out of.

After reading many, many books and talking to lots of people with lots of different faiths, I still felt as though I was adrift on my own vast sea. Eastern philosophy left me cold, most western religions were fundamentally no different than the one I had left. It did not occur to me, for the longest time, to turn inward for my answers.

I found a book called Inner Christianity.

Outer Christianity focuses on salvation in the afterlife… Inner Christianity does not deny that there is an afterlife that will be shaped by our actions in the present, but it is less concerned with obtaining salvation in the future than with attaining illumination now.

Illumination. This book by Richard Smoley has given me a new perspective on the Christianity I learned as a child. It has opened my mind to a whole new perspective on God, Christ and my own spiritual awareness. I have been and always will be a Christian. I may have fought it for a bit, delving into ‘this’ philosophy and ‘that’ discipline. But all the while I continued to pray. All the while I know in my heart that Christ showed The Way, and it is up to me to follow. Christianity is written on my heart and there may it stay.

Now, I do not believe that this book has All the Answers. This book is not my new “Bible”. It has simply allowed me to think clearly for once in my life. It is a key that has opened a door. No, my Bible is all of Creation, both outward and inward. The answers are there, and they are available to everyone. They are free and all you have to do is seek them. Reach for God and he will be there.

And that is how I am finally finding Grace in my life. This is about me, chasing Grace.