Experiencing Grace

Experiencing grace

Sitting on the chair reading, I felt colder and colder. Turning my head and looking out of the window, I found the sun shining broadly on the trees and yard. I stood up, hurtled out of the apartment door and ran downstairs to the yard. I desired to put myself into the warm rays of the sun.

Not surprisingly, I felt a thread of warmth coming over me and making me revive from the cold in the apartment. I got relieved and took a deep breath, seeming to take into more warmth into my body. It is true that the season now is summer. But this morning it was cold. I needed warmth.

Bathed in sunshine, I felt a happiness that I had never experienced. It seems to be against what Schopenhauer has ever said: it is clear, then, that our happiness depends in a great degree upon what we are, as my happiness, at least this moment, depended upon the sun which provides us with inreplaceable light and warmth.

In the cold, we seek after warmth; in hunger, we seek after food; in trouble, help; in darkness, light; in emptiness of heart, consulation; and in spiritual poverty, God.

Actually, the latter things are everywhere, but few of us seek them and take them seriously as happiness. We just take them for granted.

Every event, in order to be realised and appreciated, requires the cooperation of two factors, namely, a subject and an object, although these are as closely and necessarily connected as oxygen and hydrogen in water. That’s why the external factor in an experience is actually the same, but the subjective or personal appreciation of it varies, the event is just as much a different one in the eyes of different persons as if the objective factors had not been alike.

Sunshine, air and water are free, which is the reason why they are so easily depreciated. But for some, they are grace. I totally agree with Schopenhauer when he says that the world in which a man lives shapes itself chiefly by the way in which he looks at it, and so it proves different to different men; to one it is barren, dull and superficial; to another rich, interesting and full of meaning.

It was so rich now in my eyes. And it occurred to me the poem by Wordsworth:

Earth has not anything to show more fair:

   Dull would he be of soul who could pass by

   A sight so touching in its majesty

This city now doth, like a garment, wear.

Yes, there is no lack of beauty in the world and lack of eyes to find it. Only if you open your eyes and would like to stand in sunshine, will you be capable of turning a fairly common experience into something so great and beautiful!