“For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.” (2 Nephi 25:23). Grace can be described as a refinement or elegance of movement. The key word here is movement. Grace has to be embodied and acted out to exist at all. We describe dancers and athletes as moving gracefully. We don't describe the spectators as sitting gracefully. The reason that Nephi says that we are saved by grace after all we can do is because Grace can only ever be applied when we are actually doing something. Grace can multiply the positive effects of our actions and ameliorate the negative effects, but it can do nothing at all if, through fear or pride or sheer stubbornness, we remain rooted to the spot and refuse to act at all. When Peter, James and John had spent all night fishing and had done all that they could do and hoped against hope for a miracle, Jesus Christ could not miraculously fill their nets with more fish than they could manage until they acted and cast their nets into the water once more. So often we choose not to act because we are afraid that we will stumble and fall and make a fool of ourselves. Or, in other words, we do not act because we are afraid that we will move without grace. But our fears are unfounded. We may, of ourselves, be clumsy and graceless, but as long as we have the faith to risk falling and needing to be saved, then we invite Grace in to save us. Moses had to have felt pretty foolish walking into the sea with an army coming to destroy his people. But then he and all of his people were saved by grace. When we refuse to act, we are denying ourselves of Grace. Grace is only available to those who walk in faith because we can't sit still or lay prone with grace. We can only have grace with us when we are moving and doing. The more that we do and act and walk in faith, the greater will we feel the Lord's grace moving through us as we ourselves are also moving. We can pray for grace but it's not going to fall into our laps but rather it will flow through our actions and adorn and heal and beautify and save us in everything that we do.
