Is it Grace Happening?

It's been awhile since it's come up, but there's something of an ongoing argument I've been having with a local writer who's taken me under her wing. When some unexpected good thing, or moreso, when a series of good things has come my way, I've held that life is inexplicable, whereas Susan maintains life makes clear sense, and the Universe does reward us for our positive actions.

I'm a struggling writer. Struggling not so much in the sense of being paid for my writing, but struggling to place my tush in the chair and keep it there---no ifs, no ands, no buts. Recently, however, I'm being uncharacteristically consistent in doing at least some wee bit, even if just fifteen minutes, of writing each day. A short time after this consistency started taking hold, people came to me with writing assignments: an article for a church's newsletter which turned into a corresponding article for the local newspaper, a book review while I was still working on a previous review for the same editor, and an invite to participate in a reading with writers I look up to as part of a bookstore's re-opening. There have been other things, but those are most of the highlights.

If and when I mention this uptick to Susan, I'm certain she'll argue for my seeing it as the result of, reward, for "good behavior." (In her defense, she has ample reasons and cause in trying to get me to see the effects of my writing, more clearly.) However, I have trouble with a "Universe" or "God" that rewards. If this is so, then isn't there also a punishing side to that coin?

But then, things do go together. While it's true that life is inexplicable, and not only due to Grace; it's also true that actions do yield results. There does seem to be currents, like a river, running through out lives. (Living Water, anyone?) It's more than possible that certain actions do open us more to, place us directly in, those currents. Just as Biblical commandments aren't given just because, "God says so," but because they simply make life more straight and true, certain positive, faithful actions bring us into fuller more abundant life.

I guess Susan and I continue arguing because we're both right.