Grace, Grace—Surrender
Over the last few weeks no doubt we’ve all felt a variety of emotions. I’ve not been fearful or anxious (although I had a wobbly moment today—the change in season and high humidity can affect my breathing, thanks hayfever, you’re the best) anyways, the emotion I’ve been feeling the most is frustration, bordering anger.
As a scriptwriter, author and communications advisor—words are my world. So the use of them matters to me greatly. I can’t articulate that clearly enough. I’m particularly adverse to the use of language that instills fear or confusion.
My mantra in my communications advisor role comes from Brene Brown. She says, ‘Clear is kind—unclear is unkind.’ I apply this to my word choice in my job because I believe effective communication has to be clear. In fact, clear and kind language should not require clarification. That’s what makes it effective.
We are in an extremely noisy time and a few days ago the noise was getting to me. Specifically, the vitriol of these weird days we’re in. There’s some unhelpful words and unhelpful sentences being bandied around. They began to affect me, layer upon layer, word after word. So, I stopped myself and had a chat—with myself.
I asked myself why I was feeling this way and where it was coming from. I managed to join the dots that my frustration was related to my passion—words and communication. So I asked myself, ‘What power do you have to affect change?’ I replied, ‘None.’ And then I asked myself, ‘How many people have lived through these kinds of days before?’ I replied, ‘None, probably.’
It was here that I came to realise my frustration, though possibility merited, was changing nothing—apart from my attitude. So I gave grace to myself for allowing the frustration to build. And then I prayed, ‘I surrender control to you, God. I’m frustrated by what I’m seeing, but grace to those people leading the charge in these uncertain times. Grace, grace—surrender.’
We’ve not lived these kinds of days before and no one knows what the “most” right thing to do is. We’re all taking educated guesses. Trying. Adapting. And I’m finding that I have to apply ‘grace, grace—surrender’ most days.
Grace to myself
Grace to others
Surrender to God
And so now, when I hear an angry shopper in the supermarket I whisper to myself, ‘Grace, grace—surrender.’
And when I’m doing my daily walk and someone crosses the road when they see me walking toward them, I whisper to myself, ‘Grace, grace—surrender.’
And when I act out because lockdown isn’t what humans are designed for, I whisper to myself, ‘Grace, grace—surrender.’
And when I learn that my brother is only going to be able to spend one hour in the delivery room with his wife for the labour and birth of their firstborn I whisper through tears, ‘Grace, grace—surrender.’
