GRACE AND GRATITUDE
I have the honor of sitting with people who have suffered much harm and trauma. The work is hard and the path to healing and hope is not linear and usually quite messy. The people I see are in various places and stages with all manner of hard things. Holding space for someone else’s heart in their trauma is something I consider to be sacred and not taken lightly.
As I reflect on this sacred work that I get to participate in, there are many reasons to be grateful, However, the overarching reason for gratitude came down to this:
GRACE
Yes…GRACE
Grace is for anyone who will receive it. It is always present and always available.
It is because of God’s grace and forgiveness that we can be free and live in the security and light of his love even within our trauma stories. Trauma survivors often have a hard time feeling loved or accepted. And most would say they feel anything but free…many would relate much more to the word broken, shame, confusion, and guilt but…
GRACE says you may feel broken, shameful, confused, guilty, but truth says even in your brokenness…You are loved and accepted. You matter.
As Ann Voskamp writes, Jesus is saying:
“Whatever you’re caught in, I make you free. Whatever your accused of, I hand you pardon. Whatever you’re judged of, I give you release. Whatever binds you, I have broken. All sin, shame, guilt and lack I have made into beauty and abundance…
This is love. This is Grace given and when it is surrendered to and received…it is the most powerful thing. The very power of God. Grace does not negate transformation—but always initiates it.”
God’s grace is always present and always offered. Even, as people begin the hard work of healing trauma and looking on themselves and their lives with loving eyes, the miracle and kindness of grace is always available. Always.
May you find beauty in the gratitude of GRACE this Thanksgiving.
Cynthia
