Tis the season of gumballs galore at my house. We have some healthy gum trees at our place that drop an abundance of those prickly pests this time of year. I have had the thought that the road in hell must be paved with gumballs. I like to take my walk up and down our asphalt driveway early in the morning, and those pesky gumballs provide a real good irritant for my nice peaceful walk. I try to keep them brushed off so I don’t get the pleasure of treading on gumballs. Well, this morning I made some real progress in my war on gumballs. Since I am trying to make it a point to exercise more in my retirement years, this occurred to me. Those gumballs are my friends. Not only do I get to rake them up with the sweeper behind the riding lawn mower and with the hand rake, but I can do a combination bend and leg squat to pick them up off the asphalt. Get out now! I can have some good exercise while doing something constructive. Now that’s a good thing! So now when I step on that prickly pest I can think, “Oh! There’s another one of my friends, Gumball.” And I am most happy to do my bend and leg squat to pick that critter up and toss him to one side! It’s a revolutionary breakthrough in attitude! Lemons to lemonade! So, I’ll be making lemonade until we decide to spend the twelve or fifteen thousand dollars on taking all the gum trees out (which will probably never happen in our lifetime). The apostle Paul learned a similar lesson with all the thorny trials and tribulations that he constantly faced in his walk with the Lord. Grace is the unlimited life, power, gifts and abilities of God imparted to us through the righteousness and sacrifice of Jesus to enable us to do all the will of God on earth here and now through the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul learned grace. He learned to apply the Word and draw on the Spirit of God so that through the all-sufficient grace of God he could overcome all things. He learned to “take pleasure” in “picking up the gumballs.” He learned to not belly-ache about the trials and tribulations, but to benefit from them. He learned that in his weakness, by having faith in and applying the Word and receiving and yielding to the Holy Spirit, he could live by the power of God. He learned the lesson that made him fruitful in the kingdom of God and benefited him for all eternity. This guy wrote joy-filled letters from prison that still impact the world today. We as believers in and followers of Christ have a choice. We can gripe and complain about the thorny gumballs of life, or we can apply the Word of God and receive and draw on the Spirit of God, and live in total victory in Christ our Lord.