Courage is grace under pressure." Ernest Hemingway
Hello world! For those of you who are new, welcome to the Luminstruct blog! I am currently working on a "365 Word Project" where everyday I will be posting a reflection on a word and today's word is "Grace".
Have you ever considered the word grace before? I know this is kind of an odd question, but once this word came up and I had to write about it, it got me thinking about what exactly grace means in today's society. I feel like there are only two real meanings that have become the norm.
1. The Grace of God: Nothing is more powerful than the divine grace that brings life, guides people toward forgiveness, and fills them with spirit. I feel like most people secretly wish they had this in their lives, but are not willing to publicly try to obtain it. For some reason religion has appeared to have really taken a back seat in a lot of people's lives. Maybe this is only true in the college setting, but people have removed their ties to certain denominations and I would even brave to say that more people would consider themselves spiritual, but not religious. Although you see religion pop up when things aren't going the way they should and people then ask for prayers or ask for mercy, you never really see God mentioned during the good times. Personally I would even say that today's religious groups are not really even taken seriously with the younger generations. It is hard to keep a faith system going when a savior or prophet was alive 2,000 years ago and not much (on a biblical scale) has happened between now and then. The world has become more analytical and to have someone place blind faith on something they can't see or touch and only have a 2,000 year old book or manuscript to go off of, things fall apart and grace is lost. I'm not saying this is necessarily my belief, nor the believe of the majority, simply a theory on what is slowly happening in the younger generations. Religion has become a joke to some. I would consider myself a Catholic, but I have even been embarrassed by the Catholic faith in coming out with statements such as baptizing aliens from space if they wanted to be baptized...it just seems like an older group of people trying to yell just as loud as the crazy celebrity stunts we see, and this should never be the role of a faith organization. God's grace is never gone, but I feel like the vessels of His grace are becoming weak and cracked as they try to hold this mighty power.
2. The Grace of sophistication and elegance: This is kind of the grace of older times and of innocence. You can take a look at older black and white photos of celebrities or models and speak endless volumes about their sophistication and graceful mannerisms. Although this is true for many, I think it is also a bit of romanticizing the past as we are surrounded by a noisy present. There are plenty of celebrities that start as graceful and then become corrupted by pop culture, or quickly realize that that isn't as "sexy" anymore. In many ways smart and funny are the new sexy as well as plain sex appeal. I feel like grace used to be the key to seduction, but in today's society is has become "boring" and easily overlooked. Once again I don't necessarily believe in this theory, nor am I saying that it is the majority view, but it is becoming a statement in the younger groups. I feel old just saying things like that... I think we have reached the end of this post :)
Question time: Do you think that grace is lost or overlooked now?
About the video: In order to bring grace into this world, you must first love. In particularly you have to love yourself. This video was posted in April, and I think it was simply overlooked because buzzfeed releases so many videos everyday. In many ways it is very similar to the Dove Love your Body commercial which was released around the same time, but I think Buzzfeed should have pushed the fact that the participants couldn't be heard by the strangers. First impressions are everything in today's word and if we go into it thinking someone will have a bad first impression due to our subconscious negative attitudes about ourselves, we in return will display a negative image toward others. Enjoy :)
Have you ever considered the word grace before? I know this is kind of an odd question, but once this word came up and I had to write about it, it got me thinking about what exactly grace means in today's society. I feel like there are only two real meanings that have become the norm.
1. The Grace of God: Nothing is more powerful than the divine grace that brings life, guides people toward forgiveness, and fills them with spirit. I feel like most people secretly wish they had this in their lives, but are not willing to publicly try to obtain it. For some reason religion has appeared to have really taken a back seat in a lot of people's lives. Maybe this is only true in the college setting, but people have removed their ties to certain denominations and I would even brave to say that more people would consider themselves spiritual, but not religious. Although you see religion pop up when things aren't going the way they should and people then ask for prayers or ask for mercy, you never really see God mentioned during the good times. Personally I would even say that today's religious groups are not really even taken seriously with the younger generations. It is hard to keep a faith system going when a savior or prophet was alive 2,000 years ago and not much (on a biblical scale) has happened between now and then. The world has become more analytical and to have someone place blind faith on something they can't see or touch and only have a 2,000 year old book or manuscript to go off of, things fall apart and grace is lost. I'm not saying this is necessarily my belief, nor the believe of the majority, simply a theory on what is slowly happening in the younger generations. Religion has become a joke to some. I would consider myself a Catholic, but I have even been embarrassed by the Catholic faith in coming out with statements such as baptizing aliens from space if they wanted to be baptized...it just seems like an older group of people trying to yell just as loud as the crazy celebrity stunts we see, and this should never be the role of a faith organization. God's grace is never gone, but I feel like the vessels of His grace are becoming weak and cracked as they try to hold this mighty power.
2. The Grace of sophistication and elegance: This is kind of the grace of older times and of innocence. You can take a look at older black and white photos of celebrities or models and speak endless volumes about their sophistication and graceful mannerisms. Although this is true for many, I think it is also a bit of romanticizing the past as we are surrounded by a noisy present. There are plenty of celebrities that start as graceful and then become corrupted by pop culture, or quickly realize that that isn't as "sexy" anymore. In many ways smart and funny are the new sexy as well as plain sex appeal. I feel like grace used to be the key to seduction, but in today's society is has become "boring" and easily overlooked. Once again I don't necessarily believe in this theory, nor am I saying that it is the majority view, but it is becoming a statement in the younger groups. I feel old just saying things like that... I think we have reached the end of this post :)
Question time: Do you think that grace is lost or overlooked now?
About the video: In order to bring grace into this world, you must first love. In particularly you have to love yourself. This video was posted in April, and I think it was simply overlooked because buzzfeed releases so many videos everyday. In many ways it is very similar to the Dove Love your Body commercial which was released around the same time, but I think Buzzfeed should have pushed the fact that the participants couldn't be heard by the strangers. First impressions are everything in today's word and if we go into it thinking someone will have a bad first impression due to our subconscious negative attitudes about ourselves, we in return will display a negative image toward others. Enjoy :)
Take Away:
Tomorrow's Topic: "Legend"
