It is hard to remember the first time any of us heard the phrase, "there but for the grace of God go I."
It has never sat well with my soul.
Maybe because, as a child who lost her father in a horrific vehicular homicide, I didn't want people to think we were outside God's grace. Or maybe because, as I started working alongside women coming out of prison and off the streets, I was bathing in their grace.
I am not sure why exactly, but I knew that grace, like mercy, falls on the just and unjust. I found comfort in changing the phrase so that when I witnessed someone having a hard patch of road to walk, I would just remember, "there goes God."
But now something deeper, something with more spirit is emerging within me. Now I want to say to everyone I see, "there, because of your grace, go we."
Because thousands and thousands of strangers have seen the humanity in the work of Thistle Farms...
Because thousands and thousands have forgiven and loved one another...
The communities I have been graced to be a part of are thriving.
GRACE AND PEACE, becca