“It is a better thing to have a trouble, and know how to get grace enough to bear it. And we get grace enough to bear it — when we run into the arms of Grace who bore it all, into Him Who is more than enough.

I run my hand across the page. Gather the manna up into hands, what really is, and all that feeds:

Our cries to the Lord — are what give us communion with the Lord. It’s the dire distress that drives us into the deep devotion. It’s when all fails, His love never fails — and this is why we are a people who can always give thanks.”

I wish I knew who wrote that. I suspect it’s Ann Voskamp. It has her familiar cadences and rhythms. But whoever wrote it spoke truth. Trouble leads us outside of ourselves. Trials are what cause us to look up to Heaven. Tribulations are when we find out that God isn’t the Way Up There Distant Deity, but rather He’s the Emmanuel God-With-Us in the midst of our pain.

It doesn’t have to be a calamity that compels us to cry out. It can be a thousand little cuts. Those minor detours of our hopes and dreams and plans. Those million little ways we have to die to ourselves daily to witness God’s strength perfected in us.

Lord, give us our daily bread and our daily grace for what comes. You never promised not to give us more than we can handle, but You give us no more than You can handle when we come to you, willing and surrendered. Help us to know that You are always enough and that Your grace is always sufficient. Amen.