grace

Today while waiting at Duke Eye Center for a friend to have surgery, I was able to read To Fly Again by Gracia Burnham.  Her testimony, recorded in the book In the Presence of My Enemies, challenged me like few books do.  Today's book was a much easier read, though just as thought provoking.

Maybe because last night's Bible study was from James 4, [dealing with how God's grace is bigger than anything we face, and I realized I don't always (okay, seldom is more like it) actually live my life that way], but it was like God was gently reminding me of last's night lesson in a different format. I told Bobby on the way home that so many times I focus on the problem, the sin, or the temptation, and not on God's available grace to see me through. Is that a lack of faith, perspective, doubt, or what?

Gracia ended her book on the same note. After her husband's death, she said she was living her life in survival mode, as if the best of her life was over. Only after a fellow Christian in ministry, who had also suffered, challenged her on this point that she realized "the best" in life is not over. That's a radical change in mindset.

This whole concept is not new. I've applied it in other areas of life: singleness, childlessness... but have never applied it to more personal areas such as weight or emotional issues. Sometimes it's easier to say, "Oh, but this is bigger than me."  And the problem is.  But it's never bigger than God's grace. And while that's a very humbling thought, it's a comfort as well.