Buoyancy of Grace

“Buoyancy of Grace” is a phrase that came to mind the other day and it has remained in my thoughts since then. I think I want it to remain there for the rest of my life.

“Buoyancy of Grace” offers a reframing and fresh understanding around God’s love for me and for the world.

I was reading about ‘the pastoral imagination,’ and the author of a particular chapter (Craig Dkystra) made mention of lessons he learned while teaching kids to swim so he could pay for seminary. He said that before kids can swim, they have to learn to trust the buoyancy of the water. If they always think they will sink, then they’ll always struggle to swim. In order to swim in full freedom they need to learn how to float and, and in a sense trust, the water.

He continued for a couple of pages about things in life and ministry, and then he began to talk of grace. He said that early on in his life he thought of God’s grace as ‘episodic’ – meaning it occurred at a specific moments of failing or faltering. Over four decades of ministry he has come to understand God’s grace on a much grander scale, as a constant in life, like water’s buoyancy.

This scope of overarching and undergirding grace, rather than just at a moment here and there, made me think of the Buoyancy of Grace. I wonder how this understanding of an all encompassing and ever-present Grace will affect the way I trust. Or more accurately, I wonder how it will affect how I wrestle through my lack of trust.

I wonder how living from a place of ‘floating in grace’ will help me to partner, parent, and pastor in full freedom – and in joy, like children splashing around in the water.

I wonder how you might live more fully by laying back, putting your feet up, and floating in God’s beautiful Buoyancy of Grace.