God’s Grace is All We Need

God’s grace is not a gentle shower washing away the problem. It is a raging, roaring river whose current knocks you off your feet and carries you into the presence of God.
Heather Sample suspected trouble the moment she saw the cut on her dad’s hand. The two had sat down for a quick lunch between surgical procedures. Heather spotted the wound and asked him about it. When Kyle explained that the injury had happened during an operation, she suddenly felt sick to her stomach.
Both were doctors. Both understood the danger of treating AIDS patients in Zimbabwe. The virus could spread through contact with a patient’s blood. It destroyed the immune system. It was incurable.
And now one of them had been exposed.
Kyle Sheets was a twelve-year veteran of medical mission trips. I knew Kyle when I was a college student. He married a delightful girl named Bernita and settled down in a small Texas town to raise a family and treat the needy. Turns out, they raised a family that treats the needy. Ten children in all. Each involved in works of compassion. As founder and chairman of Physicians Aiding Physicians Abroad, Kyle spent several weeks a year working in mission hospitals in developing countries. This trip to Zimbabwe was not his first.
Exposure to the AIDS virus was.
Heather urged her father to begin the antiretroviral treatment immediately in order to prevent HIV infection. Kyle was reluctant. He knew the side effects. Each was life threatening. Still, Heather insisted, and he consented. Within hours he was violently ill.
Nausea, fever, and weakness were only the initial signs that something was terribly wrong. For ten days Kyle continued to worsen. Then he broke out in the unmistakable rash of Stevens-Johnson syndrome, which is almost always fatal. They moved up their date for returning to the States and began to wonder if Kyle would survive the forty-hour trip, which included a twelve-hour layover in South Africa and a seventeen-hour flight to Atlanta.
Kyle boarded the plane with a 104.5-degree fever. He shook with chills. By this time he was having trouble breathing and was unable to sit up. Incoherent. Eyes yellowed. Liver enlarged and painful. Both doctors recognized the symptoms of acute liver failure.
Heather felt the full weight of her father’s life on her shoulders.
Heather explained the situation to the pilots and convinced them that her dad’s best hope was the fastest flight possible to the United States. Having only a stethoscope and a vial of heart medicine, she took her seat next to his and wondered how she would pull his body into the aisle to do CPR if his heart stopped.
Several minutes into the flight, Kyle drifted off to sleep.
Heather crawled over him and made it to the bathroom in time to vomit the water she had just drunk. She slumped on the floor in a fetal position, wept, and prayed, I need help.
Heather doesn’t remember how long she prayed, but it was long enough for a concerned passenger to knock on the door. She opened it to see four men standing in the galley. One asked if she was okay. Heather assured him that she was fine and told him that she was a doctor. His face brightened as he explained that he and his three friends were physicians too. “And so are ninety-six other passengers!” he said.
The plane could have been filled with conference-bound circus jugglers. Or tattoo artists. Or professional whistlers. But no, Heather and her dad “happened” to be on a flight with one hundred physicians from Mexico.
Heather explained the situation and asked for the doctors’ help and prayers. They gave both. They alerted a colleague who was a top-rank infectious disease doctor. Together they evaluated Kyle’s condition and agreed that nothing else could be done.
They offered to watch him so Heather could rest. She did. When she awoke, Kyle was standing and talking to one of the doctors. Although still emergency room–level sick, he was much stronger. Heather began to recognize God’s hand at work. He had placed them on exactly the right plane with exactly the right people. God had met their need with grace.
He’ll meet yours as well. Perhaps your journey is difficult. You are Heather on the flight, watching a loved one struggle. Or you are Kyle Sheets, feeling the rage of disease and death in your body. Maybe you’re failing a class or a friend. You’re so overwhelmed you don’t think you can face one more day.
You are fearful and weak, but you are not alone. The words of “Amazing Grace” are yours. Although written in the 1700s, they bring hope like today’s sunrise. “’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.” You have His Spirit within you. Heavenly hosts above you. Jesus Christ standing up for you. You have God’s super-powered grace to strengthen and carry you through.
Paul’s life revealed this truth. He wrote, “I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, ‘My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness’” (2 Corinthians 12:7–9).
A thorn in the flesh. Such vivid imagery. The sharp end of a thorn pierces the soft skin of life and lodges beneath the surface. Every step is a reminder of the thorn in the flesh.
The disease in the body.
The sadness in the heart.
The sister in the rehab center.
The dad moving out.
The D on the report card.
The craving to be one of the cool crowd.
The tears in the middle of the night.
The thorn in the flesh.
“Take it away,” you’ve pleaded. Not once, twice, or even three times. You’ve outprayed Paul. He prayed a sprint; you’ve prayed the Boston Marathon. And you’re about to hit the wall at mile nineteen. This wound oozes pain, and you see no sign of tweezers coming from heaven. But what you hear is this: “My grace is all you need.”
God’s grace wipes out everything else on the landscape. It is not puny but plentiful. Not teeny but torrential. Not mini but majestic. It meets us right now, at our point of need, and equips us with courage, wisdom, and strength. It surprises us in our worst moment with overflowing buckets of faith. His grace is not a gentle shower washing away the problem. It is a raging, roaring river whose current knocks you off your feet and carries you into the presence of God.
With the help of those one hundred doctors, my friend Kyle survived the flight to America and recovered from the reaction. Tests show no trace of HIV. He and Heather resumed their practices with renewed conviction of God’s protection. When I asked Kyle about the experience, he reflected that on three other occasions he has heard an airline attendant ask, “Is there a doctor on board?” In each instance Kyle was the only physician on the flight.
“As Heather wheeled me onto the plane, I wondered if anyone would be on board to help us.” God, he soon discovered, answered his prayer a hundred times over.
He stands ready to do the same for you.
God’s grace is not a gentle shower washing away the problem. It is a raging, roaring river whose current knocks you off your feet and carries you into the presence of God.

Don’t Take Yourself Too Seriously… Relax

A merry heart does good, like medicine. — Proverbs 17:22

I work with a lot of leaders. And one thing I’ve found is that many times they take themselves much too seriously. Of course, they’re not alone. I meet people in every walk of life who have too much doom and gloom in their attitudes. They simply need to lighten up.
No matter how serious your work is, that’s no reason to take yourself seriously.
If any person had a reason to take his job and himself seriously, it would be a president of the United States. Yet it’s possible for even people holding that position to maintain their sense of humor and keep their egos in check. For example, when Calvin Coolidge was asked if he was attending the Sesquicentennial Exposition in Philadelphia, the President answered, “Yes.”
“Why are you going, Mr. President?” a reporter asked.
“As an exhibit,” answered the rotund Coolidge.
If you tend to take yourself too seriously, give yourself and everyone else around you a break.
Recognize that laughter breeds resilience.
Laughing is the quickest way to get up and get going again when you’ve been knocked down.

by John Maxwell

Courtesies

Building up others with small acts of kindness is something we can all do daily!

Small acts of courtesy sweeten our lives and the lives of others. It only takes a moment to lend a helping hand. The Bible tells us to do good to others, but not so that everyone knows you have done it—we are not seeking some physical reward for our actions (Matthew 6:1-4).
Having courtesy adds politeness and enjoyment to life. Seeking to be nobler lifts us to a higher purpose of living—a level of interactions that shows love for a neighbor. Sharing our abundance, comforting those who mourn and standing by friends in their time of need are acts that lift our spirits as well as the hearts of those we help. It is by learning the joy of small courtesies that we develop an awareness to be ready for the greater ones.

Towards Sharper Vision and a Softer Heart

When we love others the way Jesus taught us to, something good happens, not only to the people we love, but also to us. Authentic compassion and genuine mercy never say, “You poor thing! I feel sorry for you” [and then be done with it]. God’s love transforms us into people who have a better way of meeting the needs of others. Our vision sharpens and our hearts soften, making us the kind of people who actively respond to suffering instead of looking away or walking to the other side of the street…
In the early weeks following [my son] Jason’s arrest, Gene and I had no idea how we would be able to afford sizable monthly payments to his attorney … One afternoon as I sifted through the stack of mail that had just been delivered, the return address on one of the envelopes caught my eye. It was from [my close friend] Jan … “Carol, I know these are challenging financial times for you and Gene,” she wrote, “and I’m enclosing a check for you to have on hand for when you need it.” I looked at the large amount of money and gulped. I called her to explain that I didn’t want to accept a gift of that magnitude. It didn’t seem right. But she insisted. “Just put the money in the bank, and you’ll know it’s there in case you need it” …
Even though we were eventually able to return the money Jan gave us, the knowledge that we had an emergency fund eased our minds beyond description. She saw our need, and instead of looking the other way while saying, “I’m praying for you,” Jan walked to our side of the road…
Compassion and mercy come to me more easily now that I’m a mama with shattered dreams over a son who will be incarcerated for the rest of his life … I’ve discovered that one of the most important ways God is “right there” in times of need is through the kindness and mercy of other people. He uses folks like … my best friend, Jan; and even strangers and supposed “enemies” to help us make it through the most difficult challenges of our lives. And he tells us to do the same for the hurting people we find on the roads we travel.
–Between a Rock and a Grace Place: Divine Surprises in the Tight Spots of Life by Carol Kent

Towards Sharper Vision and a Softer Heart

When we love others the way Jesus taught us to, something good happens, not only to the people we love, but also to us. Authentic compassion and genuine mercy never say, “You poor thing! I feel sorry for you” [and then be done with it]. God’s love transforms us into people who have a better way of meeting the needs of others. Our vision sharpens and our hearts soften, making us the kind of people who actively respond to suffering instead of looking away or walking to the other side of the street…
In the early weeks following [my son] Jason’s arrest, Gene and I had no idea how we would be able to afford sizable monthly payments to his attorney … One afternoon as I sifted through the stack of mail that had just been delivered, the return address on one of the envelopes caught my eye. It was from [my close friend] Jan … “Carol, I know these are challenging financial times for you and Gene,” she wrote, “and I’m enclosing a check for you to have on hand for when you need it.” I looked at the large amount of money and gulped. I called her to explain that I didn’t want to accept a gift of that magnitude. It didn’t seem right. But she insisted. “Just put the money in the bank, and you’ll know it’s there in case you need it” …
Even though we were eventually able to return the money Jan gave us, the knowledge that we had an emergency fund eased our minds beyond description. She saw our need, and instead of looking the other way while saying, “I’m praying for you,” Jan walked to our side of the road…
Compassion and mercy come to me more easily now that I’m a mama with shattered dreams over a son who will be incarcerated for the rest of his life … I’ve discovered that one of the most important ways God is “right there” in times of need is through the kindness and mercy of other people. He uses folks like … my best friend, Jan; and even strangers and supposed “enemies” to help us make it through the most difficult challenges of our lives. And he tells us to do the same for the hurting people we find on the roads we travel.
–Between a Rock and a Grace Place: Divine Surprises in the Tight Spots of Life by

Good Credit

Avoid the credit traps and you can avoid being enslaved to debt.

How can we establish ourselves as a credible person when it comes to borrowing money? How can we get to the point that our credit rating is high? Oddly enough, it is not by being in debt. It is not by just managing our financial obligations each month—though that is a good thing. Maurice Switzer wrote, “The best way of establishing your credit is to work yourself into a position of not needing any.”
Credit is obtaining money with a promise to repay. Credit cards, for example, have allowed our debts to skyrocket. Uncontrolled credit is one of the reasons for our huge economic woes today. The Bible reminds us that the borrower is the servant of the lender (Proverbs 22:7). Live within your means and stay out of debt—that makes you a “good risk” in credit establishment terms. You can have that good reputation without being a debtor.

Something No One Else Did

The public station was replaying an interview with historian/sociologist Rodney Stark…
Reporter: Why did the Christian movement grow so rapidly in the first few centuries after Jesus’ crucifixion? …
Stark: The growth surge of Christianity was rooted in the response of early Christians to a wave of great pandemics … During that time, Christians did something no one else did.
Reporter: And what was that?
Stark: It sounds simple, but they stayed. They helped. And many gave their lives in doing so. In my book, The Rise of Christianity, I refer to a letter written by Dionysius, the bishop of Alexandria. He describes how early Christians responded to a deadly plague that killed an estimated five thousand people a day in the Roman Empire sometime around AD 260:
“Most of our brother Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another. Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ … they were infected by others with the disease, drawing on themselves the sickness of the neighbors and cheerfully accepting their pains. Many, in nursing and curing others, transferred their death to themselves and died in their stead…”
[Elly] wondered if she could have done as much in AD 260; she wanted to think so… [Her thoughts jumped to an encounter] two weeks ago. She simply picked up a runaway tube of lipstick and returned it to the owner. But the owner’s eyes betrayed a fragility Elly hadn’t seen lately. As she handed the lipstick back, the woman received it with both hands, as if it were a robin’s egg or a long lost coin … [Elly] couldn’t remember exactly what her parting words were, something like “Bless your heart … just go slow.” … Stark’s words still hung in the air. “Heedless of danger … they were infected by others.” She hadn’t thought to heed the danger of pausing to pick up a lipstick…
-From the novel Start With Me: A Modern Parable, by Michael R. Seaton