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 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
Essential Tillich
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