Pages

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Recent Reading

"Terrible defects"? Or "doorways through which the power of grace can enter our lives"?

"First, although God calls us all toward more perfect life, we cannot personally achieve the state of perfection. We can and should do our very best to move in that direction, struggling with every resource we have, but we must also accept the reality of our incompleteness. Second, we need to recognize that the incompleteness within us, our personal insufficiency, does not make us unacceptable in God's eyes. Far from it; our incompleteness is the empty side of our longing for God and for love. It is what draws us toward God and one another. If we do not fill our minds with guilt and self-recriminations, we will recognize our incompleteness as a kind of spaciousness into which we can welcome the flow of grace. We can think of our inadequacies as terrible defects, if we want, and hate ourselves. But we can also think of them affirmatively, as doorways through which the power of grace can enter our lives. Then we may begin to appreciate our inherent, God-given lovableness."
Gerald May--Addiction and Grace

More to come...

8 comments:

  1. I love this book. I haven't read it in a long time. Reading this quote makes me want to pick it up again and read it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. good shtuff.... God's light shines through the cracks...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dang that was good...I'd like to hear more too!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Please email me at
    jaojao1994@yahoo.com

    I need to ask you some questions about a blog we both subscribe to.

    Thanks,
    JASON OLLER

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hope I probably need to read it again, at least the part that is after he describes addiction in technical terms. It is a lot to take in.

    CaptainWow Indeed he does!

    Ayekah It was a heavy book to read, but worth it.

    Jason My email address is on the sidebar, below my profile. You have to cut and paste it and fix the "at" and "dot"...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Where you been, Annie? Interesting that you should post on this as it is exactly what has been running through my mind and resembles what I wish to speak on to the men at the mission tomorrow night. The book looks like a good one to check out...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Amen!

    I am in complete agreement about the positive sides to imperfection. Imperfection is what life IS - and we should not only accept it but embrace it. (And embrace it in others, which is a challenge that leads to compassion.)

    Thank you for that great passage.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Amen!

    I am in complete agreement about the positive sides to imperfection. Imperfection is what life IS - and we should not only accept it but embrace it. (And embrace it in others, which is a challenge that leads to compassion.)

    Thank you for that great passage.

    ReplyDelete

Don't just sit there staring, say something!