Grace Isn’t the Gift — It’s the Giving
This is the same piece I originally published on my Substack. I'm sharing it here on Vocal as well for anyone who prefers reading here. If this resonates with you, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
I asked God to show me what grace looks like. He showed me what grace doesn’t look like.
It doesn’t look like a cure for cancer, HIV, or COVID. It doesn’t look like a financial windfall, a promotion, opening a new business, or finding a sack of money a hundred yards off the side of the road. It doesn’t look like someone who has mastered the first two — who reasoned it out, found the cure, and got paid.
It’s not any combination of those three that defines grace. Being asked to lead anyone — spiritually or otherwise — based on those things isn’t what God considers grace. It’s not how He anoints anyone into His service.
Remember? That’s why Samuel chose David’s brothers over David. Samuel probably possessed good health, wealth, and wisdom, and God blessed him accordingly. That’s not grace.
Why isn’t it grace? Because God gives those gifts to everyone — whether they believe in Him or not. He rains on the evil and the good. Evil people are cured of cancer every day. Evil people get rich every day. Evil people are some of the most intelligent people in the world. I’ve met some intelligent people who call themselves atheists, and I wouldn’t call many of them “evil,” because many atheists are kinder than many Christians.
What is grace if it isn’t a gift? Grace is the gift. It is the gift of God. Grace isn’t a gift to be received — it’s a gift to be given. You don’t receive grace to keep it as a gift; it’s not meant for you to keep; it’s meant to flow through you.
I used to think grace was the receiving of gifts. In a way, it is just that, but I received God’s gifts because of His grace — giving grace was the gift, not the gift itself. Grace isn’t the cure for cancer; grace is His presence in the midst of cancer.
Grace isn’t the garden we’ve planted, but the water God gives us to nourish the garden. We don’t have to have a garden of plenty to give grace to someone else. We may be the water that nourishes someone else’s garden. Must God water our garden so we can water theirs?
Jesus told us to love our neighbor as ourselves. That’s much easier to do when our garden is lush, green, and thriving. It’s much harder to do when our garden looks like the Sahara Desert. That’s where I have struggled with grace my entire life. I thought my life had to be perfect, or better than it usually is, to be able to give grace to someone else.
If I loved my neighbor as I love myself, I would hate every single person I’ve ever known, and even people I don’t know. Grace has always been a mystery to me, because I couldn’t accept it from God; I couldn’t accept the fact, despite myself, that He could and does still love me. Until I could love myself the way God loves me, I could never love my neighbor, but I never saw them as God saw me, only how I saw myself. If I’m not worthy of God’s love, neither are they.
Grace isn’t the gift that temporarily hides my unworthiness; it’s God’s presence in my unworthiness.
About the Creator
Mark Elliott
My name is Mark. I am recently married to my beautiful wife, Chris! We have two dogs: Belle, a Black Labrador. Jett, a Belgian Shepard. Belle and I are currently pursuing our K9 Search and Rescue certification.
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