So Alejandro asks, "What is the relationship between choosing grace & choosing courage; is one related ot the other? If not, why not? Can one be graceless yet courageous, and vice versa?"

I do indeed see them as different and my Southern upbringing says you can certainly be graceless yet courageous and vice versa! Depends on your definition of grace.

For me, choosing grace is more often about faith and wisdom and control than it is about courage. So I will take the three words separately.

Grace is trusting in a power larger than your humanity. It is about controlling base impulses to call forward the gifts of the spirit. It is about trusting and faith. It is also about realizing the empowerment in releasing total control. I have often said that I believe for some it comes easy, almost naturally. For me, the process was hard and full of different choices with consequences which were accompanied by greater stress and pain. Eventually, even I realized that I could not control what would happen around me or to me, only my reaction. I had to unlearn and then relearn and that process is hard. But from that I realized that there is choice.

See, it is not just about grace; it is also about choice. How freeing that realization is! Knowing that the full response is not often indicated. Learning that if I allow myself to "go there" I also have to get myself back. The choice became clear over time. Still, it is not easy. As I responded to another question about the motto..."I said Grace by Choice not Grace All the Time!" God knows (as do most of you) that I fail. But then, I get to choose again moments later.

I am not saying that choosing grace is indicated all the time. There is a place for righteous emotion or action. I am just saying that it is hard to find the time for righteousness when you do not practice faith and control in the other instances.

Courage to me is about consistency to a code despite adversity or obstacles. The greater the adversity or obstacles, the greater the courage required to behave consistently. So yes, I imagine it does take some degree of courage to live anything consistently. But I cannot compare the courage it takes to choose grace when presented with evil with the courage it takes to risk life for another man. The risks I have learned to take are more leaps of faith. So far, at the end of that leap I have been met many more times than not with a sense of peace and even joy. Not much of a choice in the end, I guess...peace and joy vs pain and stress.

Which would you choose?

So, Alejandro, what is your answer to the queston?