What stops us from being transparent and honest with each other, or with ourselves? The huge tale aways for me in today’s study is my guilt and shame. I’ve grown up thinking I’ll never measure up to others’s expectations or to my own standards. It’s easy to measure and compare ourselves to cultural standards. Marketing strategies, political news makers, and in some cities, where you live defines so much of how we think about ourselves. I’m either thinking I’m self sufficient and arrogant or guilty and feeling worthless. I can slide all over the spectrum in the same day. But I’m reminded of how much He loves us, with an invitation to His embrace. We are called His beloved children, and we need Him now more than ever.
“The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn't have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It's for you I created the universe. I love you. There's only one catch. Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be yours only if you'll reach out and take it. Maybe being able to reach out and take it is a gift too.” - Frederick Buechner
“A man makes himself hard and inflexible in order to escape his guiltiness. The strange paradox present on every page of the Gospels and which we can verify any day, is that it is not guilt which is the obstacle to grace, as moralism supposes. On the contrary, it is the repression of guilt, self-justification, genuine self-righteousness and smugness which is the obstacle.” - Paul Tournier, Guilt and Grace
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