Two books remind me of the need to constantly be considering grace in my life. And I don’t mean just saying the blessing before a meal. I mean the full-throated embrace of grace, accepting grace and extending grace without the demand of reciprocal action.
Grace: President Obama and Ten Days in the Battle for America by Cody Keenan is the first of two books.1 Mr. Keenan was President Obama’s chief speechwriter. The timeframe of the book is the ten days after the Mother Emanuel AME Church massacre (nine people killed during a weeknight bible study) in Charleston, SC from its occurrence on June 17, 2013 to his stirring eulogy on June 26, 2013. Several things stand out.
- A reminder. “According to Christian tradition, grace is not earned. It is not merited; not something we deserve. Rather, grace is the free and benevolent favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings,” Obama noted. And it is best described in its like-named hymn as “amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me; I once was lost, but now I’m found; was blind but now I see.”
- Two and a half years before the Charleston shootings, Obama was searching for answers as he prepared to deliver remarks at the Sandy Hook remembrance where 20 elementary school students and six adults were murdered. In his anguish, he noted, “Why are we here? What gives our life meaning? What gives our life purpose?…We are born and then we die. During the years we have on the Earth, there are going to be fleeting moments of pleasure and pain. And at the end of those days, we have to ask ourselves, What did all this mean? What was God’s purpose here? What is our purpose here? Were we true to that purpose?” So, the stage was set. President Obama recognized how we, as a society, had failed to adequately protect our most vulnerable citizens. And then two and a half years later, we had failed to protect some of our most devout citizens.
- On day 4 of the 10-day period, the families of many of the victims expressed their forgiveness toward the shooter during his appearance in court. They professed a lack of hatred based on their faith. They flipped the script. Instead of hatred toward the perpetrator of this heinous crime, they held true to their faith, extending grace to this person who definitely was undeserving in the eyes of most. These folks followed their faith from years of worship, recognizing that grace is extended from God to all.
- As a speechwriter, Keenan searched for something to explain the process of “extending unmerited love, favor, and goodwill to someone else.” He tried to articulate the “amazing grace that can drive hatred from our own hearts and heal the hearts of others. The grace we’re shown even when we haven’t earned it. The grace we can earn, even cultivate, by making the effort to see ourselves in each other, something that stirs souls into the most unexpected mercies.”
Cory Booker’s book, Stand, provides additional examples of grace.3
- Almost 50 years after sustaining a severe beating in Rock Hill, SC, Congressman John Lewis forgave the assailant when he came to his congressional office to ask for forgiveness.When asked why, Lewis stated that “every one of us needs mercy. Every one of us needs redemption.” Grace was not a conditional quality in John Lewis’ eyes.
- Judge Esther Salas lost her son to a gunman seeking her out at her home.She was the intended victim, but her son unknowingly answered the door that fateful day. Her forgiveness extended toward the attacker allowed her to change the narrative. Instead of the murderer taking someone away from, she refused to let him take even more with potential vengeance and hatred. She said that “forgiveness is not about trying to change what has happened…nothing can change what has happened. Forgiveness is about allowing what has happened to change you. How does it change you?” Booker notes that Judge Salas demonstrates that “we all have the capacity, every day, to choose grace, to bring forth more kindness, love, and compassion in the world.”
- Senator Booker makes some further observations about grace –
- “Grace is both a moral choice and a strategic decision to refuse to be corrupted by hate or injustice.”
- “Grace is not weakness. Grace is not a sign of cowardice.It is a sign of unimaginable courage.”
- “Grace is what fortifies us.”
- “Embracing and extending grace to each other and to ourselves is not easy.But it is the only path to transformation and redemption, for ourselves, our politics, and our country.
So, do we receive grace as a gift or are we on a journey to receive grace? Is grace finite? I would argue that grace is extended to us (amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me) yet we need to be able to receive it. “We don’t earn grace, but we choose how to receive it. We decide how to honor it,” Obama further notes in his remarks on June 26, 2015. Grace should be limitless, not finite.
To accept the grace of God and others might be our fate but to make it meaningful requires us to be on a journey to accept that grace and pass it on. President Obama and Senator Booker provide a fine point to our difficult task. We can, and we must, be equally faithful bearers of grace. Grace is the gift, and grace is the way forward.
- Keenan C. Grace: President Obama and Ten Days in the Battle for America. Mariner Books; 2022. 309 pp.
- https://mychildrenschildren.com/grace-a-gift-or-a-journey/
- Booker C. Stand. St. Martin’s Press; 2026. 263 pp.