First Notes: Grace Upon Grace Upon Grace

Dear First Baptist Family,

Over the holiday, Jen and I were reflecting about some of our early years. We met and fell in love in college, then began to navigate next steps. At the time, Jen was studying nursing and I was finishing a degree in political science and religion, thinking that I was called to be an attorney. 

As we prepared to get married, one factor was that Jen's college had been paid for by a local hospital in Atlanta. The agreement was that as they paid for her tuition, she would serve for a few years at the hospital after graduation. So we thought we would likely be in Atlanta. 

However, she got a call a few months before graduation with the news that the hospital did not have a position for her.  That was good news and bad news. On the one hand, she didn't have a job. On the other hand, she didn't have to pay back her tuition. She was free to go and work somewhere else.

That led to us to relocate to Birmingham, where I started a degree that included both seminary and law school (I only spent one year in law school before pursuing ministry full-time). Jen applied to UAB, and the only position they had available was in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). 

Jen would not have considered a NICU position, as she didn’t enjoy that part of her nursing training at all. But that’s what God opened up for her. As it turns out, she found her calling. 

Jen has worked in the NICU for various hospitals for most of her career. She has been a part of both healing and compassionate care for thousands of babies. She’s an amazing nurse to the smallest of patients and their families. 

Birmingham also provided a great launching point for my beginning in ministry and our new marriage. I was offered an internship to help me discern if ministry was for me. We met lifelong friends, too. There’s simply no way to quantify all of the blessings and future directions we experienced from that start in Birmingham. 

I’m sharing all of this because as Jen and I reviewed our history, we concluded that it was the grace of God that allowed her to be released from her obligation in Atlanta. It was God’s grace that led us to Birmingham and God’s grace that carried us through those early years — and every year since — of our marriage. 

Grace is for the biggest needs of life. God’s grace sustains us through times of grief, times of change, and times of disappointment. Most importantly, God’s grace has made a way for us to be saved (delivered, rescued, healed, made whole again). “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). 

Grace is also for the smallest of life’s circumstances. Little graces — the unexpected windfall, the extra time to accomplish a task, the mitigation of a mistake you made. Grace in kind words, grace in a friend’s laughter, grace in a minor conflict resolved. 

Grace upon grace upon grace. 

That’s what we’re celebrating each week through the Book of Romans as we begin the new year. Paul’s greatest presentation of God’s amazing grace should inspire, challenge, and comfort us through whatever 2026 brings. I hope you’ll be present each Sunday, including this week, as I preach from Romans 1:18-32. 

Until then, may you speak grace, give grace, receive grace, and live by grace. 

With love,

Pastor Brent McDougal

P.S. Plan to join us for the first session of Midweek Pause starting Wednesday from 6-7pm. I will be teaching a mini-course on Christian Politics, while other great offerings include David Crocker’s Compassionaries study, Josh Gibson’s teaching on The Book of Job, and Paul Bagai’s leadership of Immerse: Prophets.