"He replied, "Whether he is a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!" John 9:25
Last Friday at the New Balance High School Nationals in Greensboro, NC, Grace Ping of Winona, Minnesota finished second in the girls’ 5,000 meters in 16:44.8 setting a new world record for 12-year-olds. And, as if that wasn't amazing enough, the next day she finished seventh in the two mile in 10:28.66, smashing a record she already held prompting the headline, "Amazing Grace: 12-Year-Old Sets Two World Records."
Speaking of grace, in 1772, John Newton, in response to experiencing God's unmerited favor first hand, penned the words to one of the most beloved hymns of all time, "Amazing Grace". You see he was raised by a Christian mother who taught him about God and the bible at an early age. But when he was almost seven, she died of tuberculosis leaving young Newton to be raised by his father, a merchant navy captain, who took him on the first of his six sea-voyages at the age of 11. Said to have "unsettled behavior and impatience of restraint", he encountered many troubles in his life-including being enslaved and abused until his eye-opening experience in 1748 when the ship he was sailing on encountered a severe storm and almost sank. Newton later wrote that he "awoke in the middle of the night and, as the ship filled with water, called out to God." Miraculously enough, the ship's cargo shifted and stopped up the hole, and the ship made it safely to port. John marked the experience as the beginning of his conversion to Christianity. Wow, that's an amazing story isn't it?
Did you know that Scripture is full of amazing stories of God's grace? Matthew 9 tells the story of Jesus healing a man blind from birth. Upon receiving his sight the man exclaimed, "I was blind but now I see!" Until coming to know Christ though, aren't we all blind? Aren't we all lost and in need of God's salvation? No matter what you've done or where you are though, you can, like Newton call out to God and experience that Amazing Grace for yourself.
Heavenly Father, thank you for loving us so much that you would forgive the unforgiveable, love the unlovable and change the unchangeable. Your amazing grace has the power to change even the worst of sinners and restore a heart of stone to a heart of flesh. May those hurting or unsure of their next step cry out to you today that you might have them singing Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. It's in your precious name we pray, Jesus. Amen.
Happy Running!!!
Amazing Grace - Chris Tomlin
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