There’s a yoga video I make frequent use of that begins with this statement by the teacher, Kia Miller:
“There are two primary forces at work in our life:
The ascending force of action and effort, and the descending force of grace.”
As you engage in the practice, as you expend effort, there is a continuing emphasis on leading with the heart – thrusting the chest forward in the poses, all the while cultivating an inner receptivity. It’s an invitation to that “descending force of grace” to pour forth and fill that open vessel of the heart.
In yogic terms the practice is about balancing and blending two forces in the energetic body (called “prana” and “apana”) in order to awaken a third force, the energy of awareness called “kundalini.” But doing the practice has led me to reflect on the deeper spiritual applications of this gesture – the soul reaching out to God and, we would hope, the experience of an influx of grace in return. We may experience that grace as a subtle, calming peace or – hey, it could happen – as a torrent of ecstatic joy, or in one of a myriad of expressions of Divine influx in between those extremes.
Though there are stories of God’s grace showing up out of the blue, seemingly uninvited—as when Saul of Tarsus is knocked off his horse and rendered temporarily blind by a blazing light from heaven—it seems the effort must come first. A movement in the direction of grace, a willingness to receive, is required. Some shift in Saul’s soul must have occurred in order to invite the 180 degree about face that occurred on that road to Damascus (after which he became known as Paul; see Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 9).
It’s not like when we were children, though, visiting some friend of the family and spotting a dish full of mouth-watering candy on the table. You know, where your mother notices the wide-eyed expression on your face and, as your hand spontaneously leaps from your side toward that confectionary beatific vision, her firm voice intrudes, “Ask nicely!” (Hopefully not the dreaded, “Oh, no you don’t. You’ll spoil your dinner!”) The grace of God is not stowed away in God’s pantry and doled out in small decorative dishes just a little too far from the edge of the table for us to reach ourselves, thereby requiring our polite, submissive request. (“Please, sir, I want some more!”) No, the storehouses are wide open to us. “It is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom”, Jesus assured his disciples (Luke 12:32).
But I don’t think I have to tell you that the storehouses don’t always feel that readily available. Sometimes it can even feel like we’re clinging to some flotsam in a dark ocean waiting for someone to notice us and toss us a life line. Speaking for myself, any time I’ve felt that way I’ve also been aware of having “jumped off the boat” myself in one way or another. Over and over we turn, and turn yet again to grace. That turning is the effort required. It’s not about pushing a boulder up a hill; it’s just a small movement of the heart, a little willingness to be the receptacle of God’s free gift.
I hope that your days this week are filled with many moments of such grace.
If you hadn’t guessed, Effort and Grace is the theme we will be working with this Sunday evening at 6:00 for our multi-faith music and meditation service. We’d love for you to join us.
Blessings (and big bowls of candy),
Roger