What's This Thing Called Grace?

I enjoy conversations that range wide and go deep -- the ones that make me think and push me to accurate articulation. A while back, I was in the midst of just such a conversation when my friend asked me to define grace. Right then. Right there. On the spur of the moment define "grace" -- a concept that took John Wesley pages and pages and sermons and sermons to articulate. So without Harvey's "Handbook of Theological Terms," without Wesley's Complete Sermons, without the New Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, I tried to define grace, to distill into a few words the essence of this concept that is foundational and transformational to faith and life. What I came out with is that grace is "unmerited mercy imbued with a genuine compassionate concern for the other's well-being." This definition sums up my experience of grace. I have been recipient of unmerited mercy from God and from people. God's grace saves me; and humbles me; and empowers me. The grace I have experienced from other people fills me with gratitude. Our common task is to find ways to extend grace to one another and to our world.