Yesterday I was with a friend and we were kidding around. In the middle of a restaurant, he turned to the rest of the restaurant, pointed to me and said “He is my weakness”. Yes, people looked. But I said to him “in your weakness you are made strong”. Sometimes it takes another in your weakness to come alongside.

Many are the ones who have a moment or a time of weakness when they need a friend or perhaps even the hand of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 12:9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Yesterday’s Boston Marathon raised the bar in my eyes as I watched some of the most compassionate stories break forth. In one story a runner collapsed just before the finish line. Other runners could have run past but four of them stopped to help the man cross.

My brother David while battling cancer and all the health issues he has overcome to get there crossed as well. A young woman, Adrianne Haslet-Davis, a Boston Marathon Bombing survivor raced as well and crossed with here brothers.

But those three incidents of victory while personal and on the “news” hardly scratch the daily examples of lives being changed through the efforts of others. It is the times of my weakness where I have witnessed the greatest moves of God through His hands and feet here on the earth. People helping people. If I were to list everyone I know to be a helper or person who brings help and aid, my blog would run out of space.

I remember when I watched the movie Pay It Forward in early 2001. Little did I know I would encounter the “worst” year of my life, as would many, and see the increased value of the movie.

I recently watched the video of the waitress being blessed beyond expectation and the “Tips For Jesus” guy. Others caught the vision. I cry every time I see one of those.

I cried for my brother and for Adrianne and so many others.

This morning I just read of the millionaire who lost it all and got it all back by helping others. WOW!

I know it “seems” like many are just in it for the money. I know it is hard to watch the glitz and the glamour when it is used by someone who seems shallow. Their shallowness is because they have not uncovered the gold that truly makes them rich.

A young friend wrote this, “With this I know I am worth loving, with this I know I’m not alone, with this I am beyond the law of the common value system.” I am pretty sure that this person did not always feel this way nor saw the value of herself. But God has changed her heart and revealed the “stuff on the inside”.

My brother David may never win a Boston Marathon (He is running in San Francisco, Chicago and a few others this year.) but he has inspired many. (He wrote this morning, “Once I realized I wasn’t going to hit my goal time for lots of reasons, I just hung with my buddy to make sure he finished. It was pretty emotional out there.”)

Adrianne may never dance as she once did but she has inspired others to dream and never give up, even to dance. Her twin brothers who were not runners joined her and ran for her. She is a hero to many and many more to come.

There are so many heroes who have not been sung of. They are not just the fire fighters, police or EMT’s but often the bagger in the grocery store, the mom on the playground or the dad under the hood of an old person’s car.

It seems like grace is just working like a machine that never quits. Steadily and forcefully changing things. And in its wake it leaves all things beautiful.

His grace is sufficient for you.

If you have not bought my brother’s book on his trip from ICU to a Marathon…