Approached by Grace

by Sarah Van Diest

I was approached by grace, and humility sensed its presence. It rose in me and leaned forward desiring to walk on the path grace paved, the bridge it built, from me to another.

It was graciousness she showed me. I don’t know where it came from; welled up from her soul, I suppose. It’s a lovely thing to see, and something folks don’t just manufacture, at least not this brand of graciousness. Maybe my feeling of humility that followed was the result of it being pulled up from its seat of resting where it had nested in me. Grace offers its hand to humility and helps it stand up. And then they walk together.

I am beginning to think one cannot have right humility without this grace piece. To be humble, in part, means to recognize one’s limitations or weaknesses. It means to understand that the self is not the answer to all things and that there is more out there than what is present within. Knowing this leads us to an edge; a cliff of sorts, where the self ends; drops off into nothingness. Beyond this cliff there is more. There are others. There is out there that which is not within. But how to reach that which is beyond? I believe grace is that bridge. Grace is the connecting of one man’s cliff to another’s; and from my cliff to God.

Grace is the thing that makes being humble not a bad thing, not defined by lack and incompleteness, but instead a catalyst for the creation and realization of something greater than what was as connections form and the self extends to another. Once on the other side of the bridge, humility meets humility, because I do not believe grace can be extended by one who does not possess humility in the first place.

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me” 2 Cor. 12:9.

I love that! “My grace” our Father says, coupled with our weakness, is how His power is perfected. Here, in writing to the church in Corinth, Paul is excited about this thought! He will boast gladly about his weaknesses! He sees his limitations as the blessing they are. He sees the end of himself, the edge of himself, as a wonderful thing to have come to.

He doesn’t have to search anymore.

He doesn’t have to strive anymore.

He has found what he was looking for.

And the grace God brings to bridge the gap from Paul’s weakness to Himself is the freedom Paul was longing to find all those years as a zealot. All those years of striving, pushing, and driving himself to be perfected in the flesh came to a beautiful climactic end.

Paul’s message to those in Corinth, and to so many others, is to see our weaknesses, acknowledge our limitations, comprehend the edge of ourselves, and allow grace to offer its hand to us in our humility and help us stand up.

I do not tell you who she was or precisely how she showed me grace. She walked up to me, stepping out from her place of comfort, recognized my vulnerability, and offered her hand of help. And because I was already aware of my need, my lack, I was ready to accept her assistance. Probably without knowing it, she lifted my heart from where it was and from how it was: stuck. Her grace picked me up and moved me.

This is how it works. This is how we meet one another. This is how we come together.

In humility.

With grace.

Dear reader, if you are stuck, if you are trapped by your failures, your weaknesses, or your limitations, let grace walk with you across the path it paved, the bridge it built, and hand in hand, walk in freedom to the Lord and to those around you. The life lived in fear and bondage, the heart ruled by law and restriction, longs for the joy Paul found. Weakness, and the humble heart, is the cry grace hears and comes to, responds to, and reaches out to.

“But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble’” James 4:6.

Humility is the sweet invitation that gentle grace waits for.

Sarah has worked in Christian publishing since 2005 as both an editor and an agent.

Currently, she works with her husband, David, in their agency, the Van Diest Literary Agency. Writing is a growing passion for her as she hopes to bring hope to hurting hearts.