Grace

"See, I have refined you, though not as silver;
I have tested you in the furnace of affliction."

- Isaiah 48:10

This morning I sat down and wrote a big long post about pain and how it makes you see life differently and how we all need to cut each other some slack . . . blah . . blah . . .blah . . .

When I was all done I read it through one last time.

Drivel - pure drivel . . . I realized I didn't even believe half the stuff I was spewing forth.

So I erased it all.

Yesterday morning on my way to work, a car cut me off on the freeway. "As if I don't have enough to put up with", I found myself saying.

The other day a client called to complain about this, that and the other. "You think you have problems!?" I wanted to shout into the phone . . . "You don't know what problems are!!"

This has the potential to be a dangerous time .

Sure, the wife and I are in need of an extra measure of grace right now . . . but I think we should also fight the urge to feel entitled to an extra measure of grace . . . Lord help us if we start demanding it . . .

Rather than feeling entitled to or demanding slack from others, I would hope that this experience teaches us that everyone needs an extra measure of grace from time to time . . .

As I have said before, God's miracles come in many forms and physical healing is just one of them. If God does not give us the miracle of complete physical healing that we are begging for, well, that will be difficult.

If our little Bella is placed into the arms of two parents who have been made bitter and resentful by the process - that would be truly tragic.

Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury,pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen