My name is Katherine Brown. I am a woman, white, a wife, a mother, a sister, a friend. I was an antitrust lawyer. I am a Methodist deacon, a biblical scholar and a professor. I live near Washington D.C.
I write. I write with a pen in blank books. My pen trails a glistening ribbon of ink that quickly dries, and the resulting lines and loops of letters and words and the spaces between teach me what I know. More than that, the writing teaches me more than I had known before I set the pen to page.
John Wesley defined “means of grace” as “outward signs, words, or actions, ordained of God, and appointed for this end, to be the ordinary channels” where God might convey to humanity God’s grace. (John Wesley Sermon 16, “Means of Grace.”)
For me, words are grace. Writing is my way of wandering through the thicket and on towards understanding. Pen and paper are not formally instituted means of grace, such as prayer and communion; things commanded in the gospels. But pen and paper are the means by which I look and listen and see and hear. The discipline of writing is for me a prudent practice opening me to grace. I do not know what the practice of blogging will teach, but perhaps wandering in its discipline will prove to be an equally prudent means of grace.
Note: All biblical quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
UPDATED Note: New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition [NRSVUE] links are provided via Biblegateway.com
Prudent Graces 