Grace For The Journey

"But he said, ‘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

September 27, 2024, will be a day that I will never forget.  My daughter and I had traveled to Charlotte, NC for a concert and stayed the night there.  There had been talk that we were going to be getting a lot of rain that could cause potential flooding in some areas which was normal for us.  Where I lived we don’t normally get affected so felt no need to prepare.

When I got up the next morning at the hotel the rain had already started.  I went downstairs to see if I could get breakfast and when I looked at the news they were reporting from my hometown in Asheville, NC  where down in Biltmore the water was already up to the windows of cars.  My intention that morning was to see my family and friends before we headed back. What I saw on the news caused me to be a little alarmed and felt we needed to head back.

On the way back my middle daughter who is in college not far from the house asked me to come get her due to the storm.  Other than the rain, I didn’t see nor had I heard any reason to prepare but I still went it got her as I heard the fear in her voice.  I kept hearing gas up and go to the grocery store.  I was exhausted from traveling and it was last so I said I would get up in the morning and go get it.

The morning came and as I rolled over I saw a text from my sister asking did we had power. In my head, I am like why would I not have power and sure know we didn’t have power? I looked out the window and noticed my neighbor running up the street so I went outside to see what was wrong. There were trees down a couple of houses from me and we were unable to get out.

I was a little confused because no one knew what had happened. I started making some calls to make sure that my family was okay. It was mostly the same: there were trees down everywhere, and they were unable to get out. I started worrying about my youngest, who was at college. At their school, they have a like with a damn which she said had broke and they had to evacuate to the upper part of the campus.  And their bridge wasn’t damaged so they were unable to get out but they were ok and then there was silence.  We lost our internet connection.

I think began to worry because now we were disconnected from the outside and I had no one to get to my daughter.  Our neighbors were trying to get the trees cut so that we could make a path to get out but we weren’t getting anywhere soon. Now I know why I kept hearing the day before to gas up and get groceries.

The next day we were able to get out so I decided to go get gas and groceries.  I had to pray all the way there and back because I was on “E”.  As I started making my way out of our duplex I could not believe the devastation that I saw.  There were trees down everywhere on power lines.  There were flooded areas and trailers.  The power was down so there was no gas for miles and we only had one grocery store open because they had a generator.

It was three days before I could even talk to my family and that was because my oldest daughter kept coming back until she could get to us and we packed up what we could and went to my parents.  My youngest daughter's father was able to get her and brought her to us. The downtown area had some internet connection so we tried to charge up our phone.

Word started getting out that we had been hit by Hurricane Helene and it was a category 4 with no warning told to us.  There would have been no way to prepare for something like that as it isn’t common in the mountains. Most of our natural habitats were washed away and it is going to take us years to recover but yet we are still hopeful. I could have not made it without God’s grace.

Life's journey often leads us through valleys of uncertainty and moments of profound weakness. It’s in these places that we encounter the sufficiency of God’s grace. His grace is not just a passive kindness but an active, empowering presence that carries us when our strength fails.

Paul’s words remind us that our weaknesses are not barriers to God’s power but opportunities for it to shine. When we stop striving to do everything in our strength and lean into His, we find the peace and resilience we need. 

God’s grace is not just a remedy for our weakness; it’s the fuel for our journey. It’s His divine favor that strengthens, sustains, and empowers us to press on when we feel we cannot. Grace meets us where we are, but it doesn’t leave us there. It transforms our inadequacies into testimonies of His strength.

Today, reflect on the areas where you need to invite God’s grace to take over.