Monthly Archives: August 2013

Grace is sufficient

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After work tonight I’m going with my parents to the viewing for Doug Gripp who died tragically when a gas grill exploded. He was cooking for a men’s group at Grace Community Church when the accident happened. Doug was a classmate of my sister in high school at Westfield. His sister Kim was in my class. I remember being over to their house a lot when I was growing up. We were all in youth group together at church too.
I can’t say that I knew Doug well but I’m going tonight to support his family. This is the 3rd funeral in 3 months that I either attended or went to the viewing. I have a friend from our previous church who is burying his wife tomorrow evening too. I’m not going to be able to go to the funeral since Tim and I will be out of town but I know that my parents will go. You know you’re getting older when you attend more funerals than weddings. It has been overwhelming. Three of those who died were much too young to go yet-all in their 50’s. My previous business partner, Dr. Mouser was the only one who lived a long life. He was 81.
We don’t know how much time we will have in our life here. I have often said that I will probably live to be very old since I have 2 grandmothers who lived into their 90’s and a great, great grandmother who lived to 103! But I don’t know this. I have good genes for sure but crazy accidents like happened to Doug occur all the time.
When the days God has appointed for me are up then I will go to be with Him. Most of the time I want to stay here a little longer but there are days I long for heaven. I want to see Jesus face to face and just give Him a hug! I have had a good life but life is not easy for anyone. Jesus didn’t promise that it would be easy but promised that He would be with us always to the end of the earth. I know that He walks with me in His Spirit. He gives me the “God nudges” I wrote about yesterday. I heard Doug’s pastor quote Pastor Phelps of Indianapolis who lost his son, daughter-in-law and unborn grandchild in a bus accident earlier this summer. He said, “Grace is sufficient but it’s not an anesthetic.” This really resonated with me. No, we are not numb to pain but grace strengthens us to endure. Sometimes Jesus must carry us to get through.

Suzanne

God “nudges”

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Have you ever experienced a God “nudge”? This is when an idea pops into your head out of the blue to do something that you normally would never do or even think about. The thought persists and you feel a strong compulsion to do whatever that task requires. I imagine that a lot of us have these thoughts but never give them any attention. We pass them off as a silly whim or say to ourselves “Where did that thought come from?”
When I was at the gym last week a woman that I had never seen there before struck up a conversation with me. It was a superficial conversation really, nothing very deep, but all of a sudden I had this thought that I should give her my ticket to Women of Faith that was to start the next day! I had the ticket with me in my purse and I knew that my group had extra tickets so I could buy another for myself. However, the overriding thought that the woman would think I was crazy stopped me from acting on this God “nudge”. I didn’t offer her the ticket but kept the thought to myself. What would I have lost if I had acted except maybe the $81 cost of the ticket? All she would have done would be to say yes or no to the offer.
What was God up to in asking me to do this? Did this woman need to experience generosity or did she just need to connect with other women to lift her up from her circumstances? What joy had God planned for me that I missed? I will not know since I did not do what God asked me to do.
Have you listened and acted on a God “nudge” today? Tell me what happened.
Suzanne

Hello world!

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With more than a little trepidation, here I am writing my first blog post. My motivation for beginning this blog is a desire to share a story I wrote almost 3 years ago about a dear friend of mine, Shadrach who is a refugee from Liberia. His story is one of courage and perseverance during a brutal civil war in his country. But, it is also a story about God’s providence as He protected him and called those who were to help him come to America to become a doctor. Come join me as I share the story. God does call the most ordinary people to accomplish the most extraordinary tasks. He did it in the Bible and He still does it today.

Suzanne