Partners in Grace

God works in mysterious ways is an understatement, if I may so boldly say that about a truth often assumed to be scripture.

Take my recent experience with a two year prayer for help.....doubt, worry, stabs at creating answers myself, and finally throwing in the towel.  That's when it happened.

I just needed a few good breaks in my life in Arkansas.

I lived a charmed life back in Memphis, not that it was easy.  But the retirement move to Arkansas has been mostly a disappointment.  I missed my friends of 30+ years who understood the path I'd been down...and their protection as they watched over me.

A little background...I went to high school with a teenaged friend, who also attended my church.  We happened to choose the same university also.  During one summer break she and my fiance, Wayne, and I worked together at a large department store's grand opening.   As friendships go, she and I actually had little chance to be together as girlfriends at that time.  This friendship of 50 years ago will play out in awesome, surprising ways...unknown to any of us at the time.

I was widowed young.

People don't recover from the death of a mate.  Period   .    .    .    .

A second marriage ended in an amicable late-life divorce.  Bless us.

As is common among women over 65 who divorce, I ended up with a nice automobile, a pretty home with expensive, and required updates left for my completion, and a 1.7 acre yard to mow, in a community I disliked.

And bankruptcy.  And it's worth noting, I was NOT in a fellowship of God's people.

At the time of this writing, I've been discharged from bankruptcy for one year and 16 days.  What a relief!  Now I am free again!!

Hold. that. thought.

Three months later I had a new unwanted credit card...dental specific... and owed a $4600.00 balance!  Within a week I required a root canal and the 'special' dentist for that did not accept the dental card...$1200.00 cash, please.  Whew.  One emergency expense after another for about 3 months, totaling about $9,000.  BTW, do you know what it costs to euthenize and dispose of the body of a beloved collie?  I needed a BIG break!  Sadly, for me, the lady with the perfect retirement plan, the most valuable thing in my life seemed to be in my mouth!  For 8 months now I've done all I can to close the gap on those expenses.

My best friend began to comment, "Boy, you just can't get a break!" I was completely overwhelmed with the absence of hope for relief, though I still believed in my God.  I am the eldest in my family now...there was no place to turn.  Prayer seemed ineffective.  The ball was in my lap.

It was then that I discovered my checking account overdraw privilege.  I also discovered how to use it as a monthly 'personal loan' I could make to myself.  Not that I added to that debt monthly; I just extended it over and over monthly, unable to overcome it.

I bargained and partnered with creditors and kept my word as best I could.  We made contracts and I kept my end of each deal.

It's important to note that I had finally chosen and settled into a church fellowship by this time.  Also, at this time I was reflecting a lot on what I could have done to avoid this awful challenge in my life....even spent a good bit of time with a believing professional counselor.  I read Job over and over.  What could be wrong?  I could find only those corrections I could have taken if I'd known ahead of time that the emergencies were coming.  We Christian women are always looking for ways to find our sin..our shortcomings..our weaknesses.  We want all the loose ends in our lives tied up neatly.

Finally, and without the aggravating details of banking mistakes (huge mistakes), I unloaded this on a Brother from my church who inquired from time to time, "Are you OK Linda?"  His response was that I really needed some serious praying for a few 'good breaks' to come my way.  And he did!  He prayed right then!

I returned home joyfully and relieved, having great confidence in the prayer of a Brother in Christ.... only to find in my mailbox the sudden and utterly surprising packet of paperwork from my mortgage company - the bank wanted to begin forclosure on my home.  But I hadn't  missed payments.  WHAT?  WHAT!!!

Rarely am I angry.  But, in fact I was LIVID!  Explaining my concern and anger in colorful detail to the bank employee who answered the phone, she listened.  She replied with those well known business words, "Please hold the line."  (Who could blame her?) After quite a long time she came back with a wonderful message.... (Finally, a break I badly needed was unfolding)...The bank developed a wonderful, positive, workable plan for getting me one month ahead on my mortgage payment.  No more few days late and the assigned late fees.  How thrilled I was and how thankfully I expressed myself to her!  How do you spell r.e.l.i.e.f?

This was the answer to the Brother's prayer!!!  I excitedly relayed this to him the following Sunday.  How blessed I was by the answer to his prayer!

Now, I only had to get a little job or sell more paintings to solve the overdraft privilege I was now using on TWO checking accounts to get through the months.  And I prayed to the God I still believed in.  I was completely content with His answer and accepted my responsiblity to make more money to 'catch up' my straining budget.  I would find work.

BUT GOD WAS NOT FINISHED WITH ME YET...

Did I mention, GOD WAS NOT FINISHED WITH ME YET?

One day the following week, I took the mail from the mailbox to the kitchen and sat with a cup of tea to open it....a stack of junk mail for the trash and a stack of the usual bills....but look!...a personal note from the friend of 50 years ago...the college friend who spent a summer working with Wayne and me.  We had found each other on Facebook in recent years.  At that time my friend had been blessed with a new granddaughter...a sweet precious baby granddaughter with immense special needs.  I prayed for this baby as a prayer partner and continue to watch joyously as this now 4 year old amazes us...A miracle little girl with an enormous smile!  And my freind prayed for many of my hurts and loneiness.

How wondrous...We are forever bound by the partnership of prayer...two women across many miles, but hearts connected by prayer's power.

In the envelope was a late holiday card containing a letter describing how everyone fared during the past year and a personal, handwritten note to me.  And out of that note fell a  check.  I picked up that check.  'Stunned' does not express the flood of emotions I felt when I comprehended the value of the check.  It was significant.  VERY significant.  And it beget flashbacks to the beginning of that friendship 50 years ago and the shared summer when we both laughed with my sweet fiance....going our separate ways after college....the renewal of that friendship recently. Big challenges that followed us both and the many prayers necessary to move us through them.  

No check likely ever revealed so many memories, praises...and HOPE.  For the check was written for the exact amount, to the penny, of the combined monthly checking account overdraft privileges that were keeping my life going.  How could she have understood the scope and timing of my need?!

Her note related sweet things she felt toward me, which I don't deserve, and explained that she had felt God was nudging her to help me.  I don't know her heart-led conversations with our Lord, but I know that, as a result, she became convicted of the need to reach out to me with help...and she wrote the check and mailed it to me.

A friend from a distance...heard her God say, 'Help her."

A Brother in Christ from the present heard his God say, "Pray with her."

A girlfriend from decades past, and a Brother in Christ in my presentl life...miles apart, through faith, became unknowing partners in ushering a new dimension of God's grace into my life, the very embellishment of returning dignity. 

What a combination of 'good breaks!'  And how precious is grace...

Marvellous, infinite, matchless grace,
freely bestowed on all who believe!
You that are longing to see his face,
will you this moment his grace receive?

[Refrain:]
Grace, grace, God’s grace,
grace that will pardon and cleanse within;
grace, grace, God’s grace,
grace that is greater than all our sin!

                             -Don Moen

AMEN!