As an unworthy recipient of tremendous grace and mercy, I have sought to repay this gift by living a life of grace. There is no other response that has ever made sense to me. Humility overwhelms me when I consider the precious gift of grace that has marked my life. Thus, grace is my understood vocation, the purpose I carry with me in the world. Extending grace to others, especially working with those who have received anything but grace in their lives, is perhaps the greatest joy I have discovered. There is something I have observed about grace, however, as I have extended it to others. People who receive it are often ironically very slow to extend it. 

Let us not falsely assume that the times we find ourselves in is a first. We know that our nation has moved in and out of tragic periods throughout its history. You only have to pick up one of the latest bestsellers to learn about how whole generations of Americans were able to move the country from the brink of destruction before. We can do it again. Our future relies only on the will of the people who will create it, as well as those who will inhabit it.

How do I show up? It’s a question I have been asking myself for the last several months. In April, as COVID-19 swept across the globe and took a foothold here in the U.S. my immediate response was fear-- fear of catching the coronavirus or that it might affect the health of my loved ones; fear that my husband’s income would be affected and that we would have to move from our new home. There was also a fear of the unknown, of how things might change.