I am beginning to understand God’s amazing grace. For the past few weeks, I have been given strength beyond myself. I have been able to think, plan and do in a way that would have been impossible just a year ago. Now, as things have stabilized, I find myself dizzy and weak; Chronic Fatigue crashy. And now I think that it was never truly gone, but it was the grace of God that held me and enabled me. Amazing.
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.
2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV
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More from Brennan Manning’s
The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out.
“The Good News means we can stop lying to ourselves. The sweet sound of amazing grace saves us from the necessity of self-deception. It keeps us from denying that though Christ was victorious, the battle with lust, greed, and pride still rages within us. As a sinner who has been redeemed, I can acknowledge that I am often unloving, irritable, angry, and resentful with those closest to me. When I go to church I can leave my white hat at home and admit I have failed.
God not only loves me as I am, but also knows me as I am. Because of this I don’t need to apply spiritual cosmetics to make myself presentable to Him. I can accept ownership of my poverty and powerlessness and neediness.”
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“To live by grace means to acknowledge my whole life story, the light side and the dark. In admitting my shadow side, I learn who I am and what God’s grace means. As Thomas Merton put it, “A saint is not someone who is good but who experiences the goodness of God.”