The Letter G!

G is for Grace!

“And since it is through God’s kindness, then it is not by their good works. For in that case, God’s grace would not be what it really is—free and undeserved.” Romans 11:6

The other day, my coworker and I were sharing tidbits about our health challenges. We discussed how when progress is slow, it is easy to get discouraged. I told her in order to appreciate where we are today, we need to stop and look in our rearview mirror to see how far we have come. This conversation caused me to do some pondering, which eventually had me asking myself the question: If God gave me a choice between going back to the person I was before cancer (and never experience cancer), or to the person I am after walking through the cancer journey (and experience cancer), what would I choose?

As crazy as it sounds, I would choose cancer…as it is within the journey, I learned what God’s grace is…

Before cancer, I lived my life based on my performance and acceptance by others. I felt that if I did what was good and right, others would love me. If I didn’t live up to their expectations or asked for something, I was a burden. I needed to be needed, for if I wasn’t needed…I wasn’t worthy of love.

Somewhere during the journey, I learned that the love of God isn’t based on my works. I am loved by God because He chose to love me.

• I was too weak to walk: He carried me
• I had horrible pain: He comforted me
• I was lonely: He sent others
• I couldn’t give…He loved me
• I was breast less and bald…He told me I was beautiful!

It was within the journey that I was stripped of my “good” and my “bad”…and I found myself seeking God’s love and comfort, experiencing His grace.

Today I find myself repeating Paul’s words from 2 Corinthians 12:

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.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.  That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Another of my favorite G words is GIFT:

 Here are just few of the gifts I received today:

• Gift of coffee in bed
• Gift and blessing of sharing my lunch hour with some very special women
• Gift of the bloggersville: It is so fun to read others writing’s and thoughts
• Gift of encouragement from the comments left by fellow bloggers
• Gift of God speaking through this blog post at Let's Get Real!  If you have a few minutes, this blog piece is definitely worth your time.)

 Q. When have you experienced grace? Or what was your best gift today?