"Dinner with Friends"

This is a picture of me and two friends I met last night at "Dinner with Friends." The last few times I have been asked to serve at an event I have been so torn. There have inevitably been issues that have come up that made me want to cancel, but I am so glad I didn't last night. 

My friend puts on a "Dinner with Friends" night, where she and her friends invite women from shelters in the Memphis area to come and enjoy a beautiful meal. She showers them with gifts and makes them feel incredibly loved. 

Last night, I met these two ladies and others. Some of the ladies I met told me they had been prostitutes, some drug addicts, and one had just come out of sex trafficking. 

The theme for the night was "A Clean Slate." The message was: God's grace covers all; there is nothing you can do or that has been done to you that could make God not love you. After the message, I was able to lead the women in "Amazing Grace." It was a moment I'll never forget. It ministered to me in the depths of my soul. 

It's astounding when I think about how God must see my life. Someone asks me to serve, but God sees the whole picture. He knows in me serving, he can give me the precise encouragement I need for that day in that season. 

This morning I am thankful for the new friends I made last night. I am that for a God who sees into the deepest parts of my heart and provides just what I need. I'm thankful for a God who saved me to serve Him and who continually washes His unending grace over my life. 

"Amazing Grace how sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me

I once was lost but now I'm found

Was blind but now I see.

My chains are gone

I've been set free

My God my savior has ransomed me

And like a flood

His mercy reigns

Unending love

Amazing Grace."