Grace

I looked up at the blood stains on the cross piece where his hands had been pierced.
...
I stood up full of courage. "I am ready to serve him with all my heart," I said.

"That is not why he died for you, Tim. He doesn't need your service. He died for you because he loves you. He doesn't need you to do anything at all. Now you are faced with a more difficult task: to let him love you in the midst of your shame. He did not die to coerce you into service or into moral improvement. All he wants...is you." I stared in silence at the blood-stained wood.

"You must let him love you as you are, not as you intend to be. Let him love you as you are, without a single plea for reform. It is all about grace, Tim. All of life is grace. We deserve nothing; we are given everything. Until now you have only experienced the drippings of grace. You have longed for the real thing, like the longing for the scent of a flower you have never been able to find, or the echo of a tune you have not yet heard, or news from a country you have never visited. Well, now you have found it. Grace is the thing you have been searching for, and it is all around you."

Room of Marvels
James Bryan Smith