Is bankruptcy a form of grace?

In the middle of incredible agony--about 20 months without regular income--with our family's savings exhausted and no clear picture of how to take care of our simplest financial needs--such as putting food on the table--a friend of mine called me to see how I was doing a couple of years ago.

He was worried about us failing financially, and I told him that, while I wanted to succeed, I was willing to accept that if bankruptcy was forced on us, that it could very well be an extension of God's grace to our family. And I didn't want to reject God's grace if he extended it to us just because of my pride.

I offer that anecdote in order to ask this question: how often does our pride cause us to reject God's grace? How many times did God have a plan to rescue us and we weren't ready for it? Isn't it amazing that God continues to find new ways to extend grace to us, time and time again, even when we reject grace?

I encourage you to look for God's grace and to live in it and to accept it. It reminds me of the fact that in order to accept a Presidential pardon, you must first admit that you're guilty. Ouch.