Stan’s Corner, Tuesday, August 9

Here is one of the most powerful descriptions of Grace that I have ever seen:

Grace occurs “in spite of “ something; grace occurs in spite of separation and estrangement.  Grace is …the reconciliation of the self with itself….

Grace strikes us when…our indifference, our weakness…, 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…

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….the Ground of our Being—God…

If only more such moments were given to us!  For it is such moments that make us love our life, that make us accept ourselves, not in our goodness and self-complacency but in our certainty of the eternal meaning of our life.”

Paul Tillich in a sermon called “You Are Accepted.”