Grace at 4:00 AM

I ended my tirade against banks and bankers on Friday with these words:

My next adventure in the corrupt world of money is to find out why my Social Security benefit check is $110.37 less this month than it was last month.

Thus I spent most Friday on the telephone and Internet in contact (or trying to make contact) with three Federal agencies: the Social Security Administration, the Department of the Treasury, and the Veterans Administration. I shall not go into detail about the contacts; I did write as a sort of on-going narrative on Facebook. If you want more than the brief summary below, you may access me on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/sometimes.saintly.nick

That said, the following is part of the Facebook on-going narrative:

The $110 taken from my Social Security check this month was done by the Treasury Department for the Veterans Administration. It seems that I am not paying enough monthly of the Rx co-pay to VA. I have been paying them what I can afford, $10 - $30 per month, depending upon what I have after paying my utility bills. This is a hell of a Christmas present!

After the experience, like the Hebrews in bondage in Egypt, I cried out:

My God! How come every time I think that I have caught up financially something like this happens to take away the little progress I thought I had made! This is one hell of a Christmas present.

This post is about grace. I am defining grace as:

a	the freely given, unmerited favor and love of God.

b.	the influence or spirit of God operating in humans to regenerate or strengthen them.

Yesterday's hours dealing with the Federal bureaucracy exhausted me. I also felt despondent to the point of an on-coming episode of transient situational depression. Therefore, I went to bed early, like before 10:00 PM. Alex joined me and we snuggled and snoozed. After about five or so hours of this, I awakened, decided that I had had enough sleep, and the furball and I got up.

After feeding Alex and splashing water on my face, I had to deal with my inquisitive cat who wanted to go outside even though it was still very dark and the temperature was only 28 F. (Crazy cat!)

When I opened the door for Alex, I remembered that, with all of my busy-ness yesterday, I had neglected to check the mailbox. I did and was surprised with a graciousness that amazed me.

There, among the junk mail and Christmas catalogs, I encountered an envelope from the Pension Boards of the United Church of Christ. Inside that envelope was a Christmas gift for us retired and disabled pastors. The check was large enough to replace the funds that the VA took from my Social Security check!

I do not know why this amazes me! It has happened time and time again in my life: unexpected and undeserved grace has come to me over and over and over again.

And, so I ask myself (again), why did I allow the VA's actions to create a despondency in my me? Why did I not have faith that God would provide for my needs? Why do I not remember:

‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?”   ~ Matthew 6:25-31