Grace

Recently, the pastor of our church explained the difference between grace and mercy this way:
Grace is what you receive when you don't deserve it. Mercy is what you don't receive when you do deserve it.

It has really stuck with me and I think I'll paint it on a wall in my house somewhere.
When I think about all that I do receive from God that I don't deserve... that's everything.  Husband, kids, loving family & friends, house, car, etc.  He has also challenged us to define a blessing as anything that allows us to see Jesus.  So that throws a lot of "things" that we normally call blessings out of the category.  But I believe anything that we are given by God (which is everything) is Grace.

I read a blog by Ann Voskamp who is the author of the new best-selling book 1000 Gifts: A Dare to Fully Live Right Where You Are.  The blog is A Holy Experience and she always signs her posts "All is grace, Ann".  I never understood her thing about grace until our pastor gave the above explanation.

Talk about a new level of thankfulness!  If everything we have is God's grace bestowed upon us... how humbling!  If all we received was "blessings" from God - just gifts without deeper purpose - we could easily walk around feeling good about ourselves and how much God loves us.  And never be moved.  But if everything we have is touchable grace of God, how can we not be moved to our knees?  Truly, His grace is enough.