“I asked her what was so scary about unmerited free grace? She replied something like this: “If I was saved by my good works – then there would be a limit to what God could ask of me or put me through. I would be like a taxpayer with rights. I would have done my duty and now I would deserve a certain quality of life. But if it is really true that I am a sinner saved by sheer grace – at God’s infinite cost – then there’s nothing he cannot ask of me.”
Remember who I am, and be content with my authority; for I have ready at hand all resources; when anything stands in your way, rely on my power, and execute what I commanded thee.
The only way you can become a Christian is not by pointing to your qualifications, but by admitting you have no qualifications, which is the only qualification. Until you admit you have no qualifications, you’re not qualified.
The journey of the spiritual life calls not only for determination, but also for a certain knowledge of the terrain to be crossed.
The journey of the spiritual life calls not only for determination, but also for a certain knowledge of the terrain to be crossed.
Henri Nouwen, “Life of the Beloved”
Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything.
That’s how the light gets in.
Leonard Cohen
Modern man is drinking and drugging himself out of awareness, or he spends his time shopping, which is the same thing. As awareness calls for types of heroic dedication that his culture no longer provides for him, society contrives to help him forget.
Ernest Becker, “The Denial of Death”
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