Bite-Size Chunks of Grace

Grace Moment by Moment-weekly column
In this world, everyone assumes contentment comes from having possessions and doing something important in one's life. An "I want it now" or "before now" mental attitude or expectation is the most common reaction to having to wait.
However, waiting is most often God's answer to prayer, and to our expectations. Waiting produces patience, and let's face it, humanity sorely lacks patience right now. For example, my church-Albright United Methodist Church in Mishawaka, IN, is learning firsthand what it means to wait. On October 2, 2006, as a severe thunderstorm rolled through the area, a lightning bolt from the storm struck the church sanctuary. Within minutes, the sanctuary was on fire. Flames shot 30 feet into the air, as the monster fire reduced the building to rubble. Word spread to the congregation just as quickly, and people began to gather. Within the hour hundreds of parishioners, neighbors, and fellow churches in the area knew about the fire. It took the fire department 12 hours to put it out and keep it from spreading to other buildings. By the next morning, everyone in the area counties knew or thought they knew what would happen next. People thought we would fold up and die. They were wrong.
By Tuesday night, a mobile food pantry truck pulled into the parking lot across from the shell of the sanctuary.Between 15-20 people showed up to help distribute food to the needy. Passersby were heard to remark, " I don't get it. Their church is gone, but they are still serving the needy. Don't they know they are the needy?"
My Pastors just smiled. One parishioner said, "We will rebuild the building. But the most important part of a church is still here. The people, that is what is important. Things are just things. But the people are the church and we will remain a church as long as we remember who we serve: Jesus Christ our Lord."
I can testify to that. Through the black plumes of smoke pouring forth from the sanctuary, one sound could be heard, that even the fire in all its rage could not quench, could not even come close to. "What was it?" you ask. It was the fervency of the prayers lifting as incense to the heavens, permeating the air before the throne of God.
And so like the Apostle Paul says in Phillippians 4:11-13, "I have learned in whatever state I am in, to be content. I have learned to be without and to abound that the power of Christ may be fully expressed through my life. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
Flexibility+Adaptability=Grace above and beyond what we need. That is the equation of contentment. Grace isn't a one-time offering, it is a continual outpouring of God's Love and Mercy.
Just when you think you can't take one more moment of pain or suffering because the struggle to adapt seems too difficult, that is when "God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble." (James 4:6, NKJV) God will give you the strength for one more moment, (another 60 seconds, 10 minutes, or 1 hour) at a time. Then when you get through that chunk of time, God will give you the amount of Grace you need for the next chunk and so on.
Life is hard but God's Grace resonates even stronger and will sustain you if, you accept the situation, willing to roll with the punches, instead of bracing yourself against them.