Grace

I followed this link through the Book by Book website: it is an interview with Joni Eareckson Tada, founder of disability outreach Joni and Friends. I have to confess I was curious because, being a girl, I wanted to know more about her husband, Ken Tada - I can't imagine many men who would marry a quadraplegic, so I thought, there must be a powerful love story there!

I finished the article, and yes I found out a bit more of the love story. But more than anything else, it wasn't the love story that got me. It was Joni Tada's testimony about God's grace. I started to wish I could wake up desperate for the grace of God each day (how wonderfully intimate!). Then I was promptly worried that God would take me seriously and make me disabled (oh no!),

... a self-centred thought which then brought home how much I really need God's grace.

I should say more.

I don't think total submission to God means that Christians don't have their own life agenda - ambitions, hopes, dreams. Submission goes against our nature afterall. But God in His mysterious ways never sleeps to inspire us align our goals with His. It is a constant battle, more so for those who profess to be closer to God I suspect (you think your minister doesn't struggle??). As for hard times, we will never know how much strength we really have to face them, until they come. So maybe leave those 'What if?' questions in the backburner. God says, do not worry about tomorrow, and He does promise He will provide a way out. His grace is sufficient for you.

So, I shouldn't think too much, is what I'm trying to say.

So, you are wondering, what's this gotta do with my favourite dark chocolate?

Well, nothing really. C came over for dinner last night, together with my running partner L and her cousin, Helen. I served up lettuce wraps again, and Homesick Texan's mum's chocolate fudge - over strawberries and vanilla ice-cream, not with the lettuce wraps! Unfortnately, I could only find milk chocolate, which I find flavourfully boring, and so I shaved some nutmeg into the fudge. I suspect that dark chocolate would introduce more complex flavours, 'cos last night's fudge just reminded me why I don't eat milk chocolate and prefer my coffee black. Luckily, my guests were quite happy. Hence also, the picture. After that, we trotted down the road to the Sports party, where we morphed into a fatter crowd and chatted through the night.