Never Give Up. Power of Grace
It’s so easy to say “Don’t give up” but honestly it’s so hard to do! We weigh up the pros and cons of the benefit of sticking with something.
Angela Duckworth did years of study on what she called “Gritty” people. Those who stuck at it no matter what and the consequences of that grittiness, especially for themselves.
Admiral McRaven, in this famous commencement speech to a group of university graduates, gave 10 tips for life, and one of them was that: “Don’t give up”, or as he called it “Don’t ever, ever ring the bell” (taking it from a military example). Here’s a section of that clip.
When hard times come, it’s a very hard thing to do: not to give up.
Think of moments when you wanted to give up: a class that you hate, sports, music, friends that sometimes are hard work, the routine of school life, a new scenario where you need to meet new people, …..
Why is it important not to give up? What difference does it make?
Without grit, talent may be nothing more than unmet potential.
You need grit because you have potential to be pretty good at certain things but it’s only potential (a possibility) unless you really put in the hours and work for it. If you think the results boils down only to talent, you won’t work on it, and as a result, you’ll never reach your full potential.
There is a clip of Billie Eilish. She had talent to sing. She sang all the time. But to be where she is now, she worked at it alot, hours and hours, singing, playing guitar, working on songs with her brother for hours. It looks natural, because all success looks natural, but it takes grit to get there.
Grit takes work and God knows that! That’s why God gives us that extra support. He could have just left us there and cheered us from the sidelines, but He genuinelly loves us and in the same way, a mother will guide her child in her first steps of walking, God does the same to us all through our life.
In the same way, you can give up in life’s challenges because you are not gritty enough, you can also give up on God. And God knows that more than any of us! He knows what we are like. So amazingly enough, he has come up with something to help us along our way when we get discouraged and that is GRACE!
What is Grace?
By grace we mean God’s free, loving gift to us, his helping goodness, the vitality that comes from Him.
Grace is not like a vitamin, a little boost to help us along the way. Grace is far deeper and more powerful than that. As Pope Francis says Grace “is divine love, the love that changes lives, renews history, liberates from evil, fills hearts with with peace and joy.” He also says:
Grace is a synonym of beauty. In the beauty of God’s love, we also discover our own beauty, for we are beloved of God. For better or worse, in sickness and in health, whether happy or sad, in his eyes we are beautiful, not for what we do but for what we are. Deep within us, there is an indelible and intangible beauty, an irrepressible beauty, which is the core of our being.
Where do we find grace?
Grace is a gift. It’s not bought or deserved, but it’s a gift. It’s a gift of the Holy Spirit. Grace can be given to us at any time, in any place, but God acts principally through the Sacraments. Why? One way of understanding it is because for us to be able to truly receive a gift, we need to be willing to prepare ourselves for it. Like a birthday or Christmas. There is preparation in receiving a gift, and that preparation makes the gift even more valued. God kind of works that way too: He wants us ready for his gift of Grace.
What are the benefits of Grace?
Oodles of benefits!! The main one being joy and a lot of peace, and also a real conviction that we are loved because of who we are, not because of what we do. Pretty cool, it has to be said :)
So while in life, there is the importance of grittiness, in our life with God, there is the importance of grace. Grittiness, you need to work for it. Grace, you need to be willing to step into God’s space and receive it.