I remember a conversation that I had in America thirteen years ago with a young French pastor [Jean Lasserre]: We were asking ourselves what we wanted to do with our lives. He said that he would like to become a saint (and I think that it is quite likely that he did become one). At the time I was very impressed, but I disagreed with him, and said in effect that I should like to learn to have faith. For a long time I did not realize the depth of contrast. I thought I could acquire faith by trying to live a holy life, or something like it. […] I discovered later, and I am still discovering right up to this moment, that it is only by living completely in the world that one learns to have faith. One must completely abandon any attempt to make something of oneself, whether it be a saint, or a coverted sinner, or a churchman (a so called priestly type!), a righteous man, a sick man, or a healthy one. By this-worldliness I mean living unreservedly life’s duties, problems, successes, and failures, experiences and perplexities.
--Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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