A Walk With The Walkers

Grace. This five letter word packs a big punch! It is what the Christian faith is based on. There are many verses in the Bible that mention it, and there are thousands of songs written about it. As a matter of fact, quite possibly the most well known folk hymn, written by John Newton, was about "Amazing Grace." So, what exactly is grace? In the most basic definition, grace is a free gift, that we did absolutely nothing to earn. God himself hands it out to us, all we have to do is accept it from Him.  How cool is that!?! It's even better than those awesome gifts with purchase at the Clinique counter, because you don't have to buy anything!  I could tell you about grace in the past, but until we had our sweet daughter, I couldn't put a finger on what grace looked like in my personal life. And grace is a big deal. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith -- and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift from God -- not by works, so that no

"Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." -- 2 Corinthians 12:8-10 Has this ever been you?  Pleading, praying, begging God to remove a negative thought, an illness, a judgement, a financial burden?  In our weakest times, as we plead and talk with God, that is when His power is made perfect in us.  It's so hard to wrap my mind around that sometimes.  As our family rallied around my father-in-law, Brick, as he battled metastatic melanoma cancer, there God was, with us.  We prayed daily for Brick's healing.  He prayed daily for his healing.  Even on hospice, where someone from the outside woul