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Success is neither wholly nor principally instigated by hard work, education or networking – severally or jointly. It still is possible to fire off target after working the hardest, being the most educated and possessing all that social capital. It is grace that makes all the difference. Alas (and this is the major K-leg of the matter) grace cannot be earned or bought.
Grace is almost like love. Both are blind. Both are foolish. Both don’t care whether you are deserving.
Unlike love, though, grace is not necessarily a feeling or an emotion. Grace cannot be negotiated nor is it negotiable. Grace is not a commodity. Grace is not even a human virtue, except in its enjoyment.
Grace seems to suffer untold inferiority complex. It chooses mostly the unqualified and proudly publicly qualifies them as if indirectly disqualifying the qualified. Grace grants access only to the undeserving few. Grace brags about not respecting or not fearing anybody but the truth is that it is a leveller of everybody: it treats equals unequally and unequals equally; more like, in the eyes of grace, nobody is somebody.
Grace is the chief purveyor or distributor-in-chief of injustice, partiality, bias, laissez-faire and such other petty forms of corruption. Grace -all too often- struts about the whole place excellencifying nonsense and nonsensifying excellence. Grace -mostly- empowers the weak while indirectly weakening or subjugating the strong. Grace must be such a coward, such a despiser, such a hater, such a sadist, such a tormentor.
It is grace speaking when you hear that the many who are called should not jubilate just yet because in the long run only a few of them shall be chosen. Grace falls only to a few -picked a hundred percent by itself. You don’t have to be good; you don’t have to know anyone (not even God); you don’t have to write and pass an examination or test; you don’t have to say the right things always; you don’t have to do anything at all for grace to grace you. You don’t choose grace, grace chooses you: it is the audacity, the effrontery, the impunity; for me.
For crying out loud, why is grace so ungraceful? Why is something as good, powerful, free, ubiquitous and generous as grace so selective and in grades? Why does grace consistently happen 50% to one, 75% to another and 100% to yet another? How was this sharing formula even arrived at in the first place and isn’t this one more proof that injustice and inequality and love and hate and favouritism were built into life at creation?
Sssh, the foregoing is too hard, too anti-grace. I withdraw all of it. I cannot come and turn grace against myself. To make amends and as well better position myself for you-know-what, I shall immediately -here and now- kickstart the walk-back process.
I cannot come and kill myself. If we look at the matter again; this time with the eyes of a big man, grace might not be as evil as painted above. After all, it is grace that keeps some alive. Many healthy people die, many sick others live on.
As this writer sees it, the mounting sentiments against grace are occasioned by the crass failure of graced men and women and boys and girls to carry themselves gracefully. Most of us are so egotistically ungraceful in our victory, in our success, in our wealth, in our office, in our promotion as if what we enjoy was achieved by the arm of flesh. When grace suddenly positions you above your peers, elders and seniors, it behoves you to shut up and sit down. Grace -when it shows forth- ought not to be celebrated wildly, arrogantly, bellicosely.
Stop using what grace gifts you to want to fight especially those whose relationship with grace you don’t understand. Stop scheming to be the only cock to crow because grace can never share omnipotence with you. Stop insulting your elders and seniors (plus including your peers and even those below you) in life because grace is too smart to ignore such arrant ungracefulness. Stop thinking that others are your juniors or younger ones in grace as you don’t know if our 100% grace turn is tomorrow; right after you disembark from your 50% high horse.
Start imbibing and showcasing genuine humility. Start seeking real reconciliation and peace with all men; with all women; with all boys, with all girls; with everyone. Start acknowledging grace everywhere you go. Above all, start preparing for the end of grace.
That particular last line is not for everybody. Grace only ends for chronic, unrepentant misappliers. Hear the word of the Lord, today: henceforth, stop showing abusive raw power. It is not this hateful and envious ego that catapulted you up there; it is grace that did it.
As we approach conclusion, this must end on a high since grace is like a highflyer. Since grace is a humble giver, its recipients must at all times display uncanny humility especially to those thought under or smaller than them. Since grace is a blessing, the graced must always bless and never curse. Since grace is clearly of God, the favoured must never act like Satan.
When grace prefers you, appreciate and accentuate and propagate and extend and share it by favouring others; instead of maltreating them. When you enjoy promotion, be deliberate about promoting others; rather than demoting them. What is sauce for the graced is sauce for all. At the end, remember that the beneficiary of grace should be ready for the big question: how many people did you promote or favour or change their story when grace graced you?
Everyone looks forward to reading your grace report card. Now is not too late to perform a dry run of counting such blessings one by one. If you discover -God forbid- that you have all along eaten the fruits or harvest of grace alone, start this instant to consciously reach out. May grace help you to record a cornucopia of achievements in your grace heyday!
God bless Nigeria!
I am: A cure for inferiority complex (2)
I am genial. I am glamorous. I am gorgeous.
I am healthy. I am “hot” -like that. I am hypnotic.
I am indestructible -spiritually and physically. I am industrious. I am ineffable.
I am the jackpot you must win to enjoy a complete life. I am the joy giver you have been waiting for. I am the jumpstarter who is your best mood plug.
I am the keystone of our team. I am kicky. I am kind.
I am love. I am loved. I am loving.
I am mercied. I am merry. I am more.
I am needed. I am noble. I am a networker.
(Cont’d next Monday)
Which comes naturally to you: Love or hate?
In the name of God or all those things you believe in, don’t be in haste to field that. Never be in a hurry to answer any poser sans first understanding the context.
Love comes naturally to me: no matter how much I try, I can’t hate man. Fortunately or unfortunately, hate, too, comes naturally to me: there are things I can never love.
The essence of this serving is to teach or remind you of the fundamentality of context. In communication, context is everything.
Never forget that. Anytime you hear or read stuff, withhold both your peace and response until you are clear-headed about the context.
Context is the message. Context is more important than word(s).
