God's Amazing Grace

One of the things I like most about a NASCAR race is that no matter how much a team may strategize about how they are going to run a race, very often, they are hit with an unexpected curve ball that can chage the entire trajectory of their race. For example, last week, the #88 car was running up near the front. Upon entering the pits, he was hit, thus ending his chances to win the race. The other driver never even saw him. Many times it is like that in life.

When we graduate high school, we think we have to have our entire life mapped out. I was going to be an accountant when I started my senior year. By the time I graduated, I had met Cliff but I was still going to college. When college started that August, guess who wasn't there? Me! I chose to get married the follwing November. That was God's course for my life. And the life I live today is not the life I thought I'd be living back in the day when I was young, idealistic, and had little to no life experience.

The trajectory of Amy's life has changed in just a matter of weeks. But unlike the #88 car, this isn't going to end her race...it's just the beginning! She's experienced deep hurt in that place that you only know exists when you open yourself up to love and get hurt by it. I'm so proud of her. She is exhibiting strength and wisdom and looking to God for peace and answers. I don't know if God has given her answers yet, but I do know that she is experiencing her first taste of God's amazing grace and she's found it to be sweet and pleasant. As her mom, I'd love to shield her from hurt but I cannot. How else would she be able to find and see God without it? These are hard, tough times but they are precious times. Years from now, she will look back on these days where she first saw God's grace that is "sufficient to meet all our needs."