God’s Good Grace

BY ROBIN SHULTZ

This past year was CRAZY. Everything changed. One day we could freely go to the grocery store (without a mask on), now there are limitations on the number of (masked) people allowed in stores. We could freely worship in church without jeopardizing anyone’s health. Various lockdowns and shutdowns created chaos. However, 2020 ended with something I never thought would have happened: my father had a stroke in November.

I dropped everything, including college schoolwork to make sure that the house was wheelchair ready for his return. Not being able to see him in the hospital was the worst feeling ever. I cried and had panic attacks; my doctor prescribed me antidepressants. With the help of my doctor and my church family, I got through the month that he was in the hospital. However, seeing my father the weakest he has ever been was challenging. I have always been “daddy’s little girl” and have always looked up to him as the strong, supportive father. To see him need help walking and getting dressed was something I never thought would happen at the age of twenty.

‘Unfolding Grace’ is this year’s theme for NYAC, and I can honestly say that I have felt God’s grace through this past year. I was able to lean on my church family and faith when I needed them the most. I felt closer to God and to my faith than I have in a while. Hitting rock bottom really makes a person look up. I asked the chaplain at my school why all these trials and mayhem had to happen one right after another, creating this feeling of hopelessness. She responded with a verse, Lamentations 3:23, which will forever be embedded in my mind, “God’s mercy and grace are new every morning.”

God’s mercy and grace are new every morning.

LAMENTATIONS 3:23

Through that verse, I realized there are good things coming out of all the mayhem in my own personal life and in the world. For example, the goodness of God’s grace to have my father live through his stroke. God’s good grace to prevent him from getting COVID, even though the hospitals were packed with patients. Grace to be able to become closer to my father and have our roles reversed, where I am the one taking care of him.

God’s grace has impacted me and made me grow stronger in ways that I could have never imagined. Though this pandemic has been hard on everyone, it has shown me what is really the key to a happy life: family, friends, and faith... in God’s good grace!