My friend, Gail, sent me an entry from a blog she reads. It hit the mark because I’m a natural and enthusiastic worrier.  However, I recently realized that the upside of my personality is that I’m a good and enthusiastic trouble shooter……until stress hits then my default is worry.  “What If”  have been two of my most thought through words since a child.  In fact, as a confession I will now admit that the first real child’s book with a message that I bought for my own children was, “Sometimes God, I Wonder ‘What IF.'”  This book was one of many on a series of psalms for children.  Really?  This had to be the first one out of all the psalms that i would choose?

I am a visual person so I found this adorable guy to help me remember an important truth about worry.  I hope it helps you and me.   I am not quoting all of this person’s blog entry  but if you are interested the URL to article is listed below so that you can read it in its entirety and do it justice.

(Originally written in 2009)

God gives us grace for today, grace for what’s right in front of us. Today is Monday. And today God has given us the supply of grace we need for navigating Monday, But today, Monday, God hasn’t given us the grace to handle Tuesday or our imaginations of Tuesday.

Stop for a second. Where has your imagination been all day? What have you been imagining about tomorrow, next week, and next year? Those imaginations have made you heavy because God doesn’t give you grace for your imagination. He doesn’t work that way. He works this way:

Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day (Exodus 16:4).

God’s grace is like manna. God gives us “a day’s portion every day.” This is why Jesus taught us to pray for our “daily” bread, not “next week’s” bread.

We need to quit being chipmunks. We don’t need to try and stuff our cheeks with today’s manna, anxiously storing up fuel for the nasty winter we imagine around the corner. God doesn’t give us grace for our imaginations, he doesn’t give us grace for our chipmunk approach to life. (Emphasis mine.)

But, hear the good news: today God has given you today’s portion of grace. You can quit wasting Monday with all your imagining and cheek stuffing. If you’ve trusted Christ, you have a Sovereign Father who sits on a big throne in heaven, exercising detailed oversight over both your Monday and your Tuesday so that you can devote your full attention to what he has called you to do today. As I have grown older, however, I have come to realize two things. First, God has not promised to give us the grace to face all of the desperate situations that we might imagine finding ourselves in. He has promised to sustain us only in the ones that he actually brings us into. He therefore doesn’t promise that we will imagine how we could go through the fire for his sake, but he does promise that if he leads us through the fire, he will give us sufficient grace at that time. Like Manna, grace is not something that can be stored up for later use; each day receives its own supply.

Blog: http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc

URL to article: http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2009/12/21/grace-sufficient-for-today/

David, told me that while he was waiting for me to finish up with the oncology radiologist at the breast cancer clinic a woman came in wearing an orange prison uniform, arm-shackles and two prison guards at her side. It made me angry. Read further on to know why.

There are a group of amazing women who are trying to launch a home for women leaving prison who have nowhere to go and are willing to be part of a ministry of restoration.  This transitional home, Haven House, was the vision of a woman who worked as a volunteer in the prisons for decades.  Her main goal was to tell women who wanted to come to her Bible studies that God loved them. Ellen Campbell, now 92 years old, had to leave Juneau before seeing her dream for this home established but she mentored younger women who are seeing to it that this vision comes to fruition.

So, what does this have to do with my being angry hearing about the inmate coming to the hospital for breast cancer treatment in shackles and an orange jump suit?  Well, it is a reminder that there are those organizations who want to help incarcerated women deal with fear and shame and then there are other institutions that don’t seem to give a flip. I will call this woman, Irene (a lovely name), because she deserves to be given a personal name rather than just ‘inmate.’  So, I try to imagine how Irene was feeling.  Probably a little scared like I was, not knowing what to expect.  But, unlike me, she probably felt self-conscious, judged, alone, conspicuous, and ashamed.  I also had a loving husband standing by me, not two prison guards making sure my arms stayed shackled to a waist belt.  Shackles? Really?  Might she try to make a run for the mammogram room and push someone aside who was before her in line or run out of the hospital into single digit Buffalo NY temperatures carrying her cancer with her?  Someone said that maybe she was violent. Maybe but I doubt it.  Cancer has a way of disarming you.  Irene will probably finish her incarceration and leave jail and whether cured of her cancer or not my prayer is that she will want to enter a supportive environment with other women who will give her encouragement, hope and the time to deal with a truck load of shame that more than likely began well before she came to the hospital shackled with cancer and cuffs. I hope there will be a Haven House for her.