“Grace
strikes us when we are in great pain and restlessness. It strikes us when we
walk through the dark valley of a meaningless and empty life. It strikes us
when we feel that our separation is deeper than usual, because we have violated
another life, a life which we loved, or from which we were estranged. It
strikes us when our disgust for our own being, our indifference, our weakness,
our hostility, and our lack of direction and composure have become intolerable
to us. It strikes us when, year after year, the longed-for perfection of life
does not appear, when the old compulsions reign within us as they have for
decades, when despair destroys all joy and courage. Sometimes at that moment a
wave of light breaks into our darkness, and it is as though a voice were
saying: ‘You are accepted. You are accepted, accepted by that which is greater
than you, and the name of which you do not know. Do not ask for the name now;
perhaps you will find it later. Do not try to do anything now; perhaps later
you will do much. Do not seek for anything; do not perform anything; do not
intend anything. Simply accept the fact
that you are accepted!’ If that happens to us, we experience grace. After
such an experience we may not be better than before, and we may not believe
more than before. But everything is transformed. In that moment, grace conquers
sin, and reconciliation bridges the gulf of estrangement. And nothing is
demanded of this experience, no religious or moral or intellectual
presupposition, nothing but acceptance.”—Paul Tillich, The Shaking of the Foundations (1955)
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2 comments:
This was a wonderful thing to read. Thank you for posting it.
Love this!
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