Recognizing Grace

by Linda Morgan-Clement

I am a firm believer that grace, unearned and undeserved care, and the possibility for renewal and transformation exist in all lives.

In her book, Amazing Grace, Kathleen Norris writes:

“. . . The baby was staring intently at other people, and as soon as he recognized a human face, no matter whose it was, . . . he would respond with absolute delight. . . . I realized that this is how God looks at us, staring into our face in order to be delighted, . . . I suspect that only God, and well-loved infants, can see this way. . . . Even when we try to run away from our troubles, as Jacob did, God will find us, and bless us, even when we feel most alone, unsure if we’ll survive the night. God will find a way to let us know that [God] is with us in this place, wherever we are, however far we think we’ve run.”

The challenge, for those of us blinded by the glitter of global affluence or seduced by post-modern deconstructive impulses, is to recognize the small beacons of grace. Living gracefully does not mean ignoring the pain, hurt, evil, and sorrow of the world. It does mean that we are better equipped to face them with courage and work creatively to challenge their power. God and the well-loved infant live in a world of abundance. Both are able to live comfortably with the tension between essential interdependence and radical particularity. Others of us, wishing to live gracefully, must create strategies of grace.

Strategies of grace are ways of engaging the world that allow us to live out of the reality that much of what we have and are given is never earned or owed. They help us to see others with delight rather than judgment, with compassion rather than fear, as partners rather than competitors. Strategies of grace help us love ourselves with patience and act with courage.

Stories of grace are one of the best ways to learn to recognize this gift. In our multifaith communities, Wooster students tell and receive one another’s faith stories. We glimpse universal themes and find our limitations stretched. In these intimate dialogues, we hear and tell of grace. These stories and this community create a hunger that lasts beyond the time at Wooster. Students write back telling of how their passion for interfaith understanding and their ability to forge relationships has shaped their work in academic, humanitarian, and political institutions. Their strategies of grace with those whose faith tradition varies from their own are contagious.

Locally, the stories come from across the campus. A chemistry professor advises and mentors a young woman who inspires him to teach a first-year seminar that asks questions about the relationship between religion and science in a new way. A small group of faculty and staff, some of whom have not met before, gather for dinner to share stories about people who make their lives better at Wooster. A young man travels to Mexico to serve in a Mayan village; he promises to return. The following year he raises the money to return with several of his friends. The Muslim Student Association asks me, a Presbyter-ian minister, to be the group’s adviser.

The College of Wooster has been and continues to be a wonderful place to build strategies of grace. Over the years it has been a place of nurture for many who commit themselves to the healing of our world, without regard for merit „ simply out of love for clan and strangers alike. The call to campus ministry at Wooster has brought me into contact with remarkable women and men who have allowed me to accompany them on their religious and spiritual journeys. From the multiple communities and diverse people who live and learn, who laugh and weep, who fight and love one another, resilient strategies of grace emerge and overflow from this small, hilltop campus.

Linda Morgan-Clement has served as Henry Jefferson Copeland Campus Minister since 1996.