“But for the Grace of God go I,” is a pretty common phrase in our vernacular. We tend to utter this one whenever we hear of a tragedy and feel blessed that we’re spared of such suffering.

Just about everyone too is familiar with the American gospel hymn, “Amazing Grace.” In particular, the line, “saved a wretch like me,” sticks with you like a hearty stew.

I fear, though, that with the watering down of Christianity and the subsequent rise of moral relativism, the meaning of Grace has been lost and/or confounded.

Grace is something that is real. It’s a supernatural substance whose essence is from God and God alone. This supernatural stuff is able to impact the natural world through humanity. We are the receptors and the transformers (to borrow an electrical analogy).

Grace, of course, is unseen to the naked eye and unfelt by our other senses. We can’t sniff it or feel it like a strong wind. Yet it’s very, very real. It’s as real as something else that scientists have been recently discovering. That other something is being called, “Dark Matter,” and scientists are beginning to speculate that it may be the most abundant thing in the entire universe, even though we cannot directly perceive it and have only recently realized it’s there in the first place.

Dark Matter (albeit unfortunately titled in a strictly religious sense!) is a good example of something in the natural world that is all around us, right under our noses, and yet we can’t perceive it. Grace, in some senses, is like Dark Matter. It’s there (i.e. real), but invisible. The next time you sing, “Amazing Grace,” remember the existence of Dark Matter and it may help you to appreciate that Grace isn’t just a nice idea. It’s a real supernatural substance.

Grace differs from Dark Matter in very important ways. Dark Matter is somewhat like the atmosphere. We’re swimming in it, but largely it’s inert. Grace, on the other hand, is more akin to food and water. The supernatural substance of Grace is the sustenance of the soul. God is its source.

Here’s the rub, though. We humans, through the gift of free will, control the spigot of Grace. We can voluntarily turn off this supernatural food . . . And, there’s the great irony. It’s like a dehydrated man, thirsting for a drop of water standing right beside a perfectly functioning spigot, yet failing to turn it on. In fact, not only failing to turn it on, but twisting clockwise with all his might while simultaneously crying out, “I thirst!”

Whenever we sin, whenever we reject the Lordship of God in favor of our own lordship (and isn’t that what moral relativism is?), whenever we turn our back on God through calculation or ignorance, we turn the spigot of Grace toward the off position, reducing Grace to a mere trickle or, worse, turning it off entirely. This can be done individually and, since individuals make up a society, it can be done as a nation as well.

Obama’s attack on the sanctity of life from his promise to reverse the Mexico City Policy, to his promise to fund embryonic stem cell research, to his promise to sign FOCA into law are all gross rejections of God’s Lordship. God embraces life from the moment of conception. For no less than God Himself was a one-celled human (at the incarnation, i.e. the conception, of Jesus Christ). God, therefore, does pay attention to and values human life at its most vulnerable and invisible stage. So, therefore, should we.

Some of the 52% of voters that pulled the lever for Obama are folks that attend Christian churches on a weekly basis. These are people who read the Bible and profess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Unfortunately, they may profess the Lordship of Christ, but they do not treat Him as such. The result? They are voluntarily turning off the spigot of Grace for themselves, and thus, for the nation in which they live.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta summed it up succinctly:

 “But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child – a direct killing of the innocent child – murder by the mother herself.”

And

“America needs no words from me to see how your decision in Roe v. Wade has deformed a great nation.”

Our deformity is the result of turning off the spigot of God’s Grace. “But for the Grace of God go I,” is a meaningless phrase when we reject that Grace. Without that Grace, there is only tragedy, deformity of spirit, and a profound lack of peace. That’s where you go without Grace.

Obama rises almost to the level of the demonic when it comes to his unabashed support for abortion (even the reprehensible partial birth abortion procedure). Those who know their Christianity, but supported Obama anyway (like Douglas Kmiec) have made their own bed and must now lie in it. Unfortunately, it’s a deathbed of the soul where Grace is in dangerously low supply.

We, as a nation, will hopefully notice this poverty of spirit in time to reverse course. Again, Mother Teresa hits the nail on the head:

“If we remember that God loves us, and that we can love others as He loves us, then America can become a sign of peace for the world. From here, a sign of care for the weakest of the weak – the unborn child – must go out to the world. If you become a burning light of justice and peace in the world, then really you will be true to what the founders of this country stood for. God bless you!”