God always entices us through love.
Most of us were taught that God would love us if and when we
change. In fact, God loves you so that you can change.
What
empowers change, what makes you desirous of change, is the
experience of love. It is that inherent experience of love that becomes the
engine of change. If the mystics say that one way, they say it a thousand ways.
But because most of our common religion has not been at the mystical level,
we’ve been given an inferior message—that God loves you “when” you change (“moralism”).
It puts it all back on you, which is the opposite of being "saved.”
Moralism leads you back to “navel-gazing” and you can never succeed at that
level. You are never holy enough, pure enough, refined enough, or loving
enough.
Whereas, when you fall into God’s mercy, when you fall into God’s great
generosity, you find, seemingly from nowhere, this capacity to change.
No one
is more surprised than you are.
You know it is a gift.
--Richard Rohr, from Following the Mystics
