Grace

At the Last Judgment Christ will say to us, “Come, you also! Come, drunkards! Come, weaklings! Come, children of shame!” And he will say to us: “Vile beings, you who are in the image of the beast and bear his mark, but come all the same, you as well.” And the wise and prudent will say, “Lord, why do you welcome them?” And he will say: “If I welcome them, you wise men, if I welcome them, you prudent men, it is because not one of them has ever been judged worthy.” And he will stretch out his arms, and we will fall at his feet, and we will cry out sobbing, and then we will understand all, we will understand the Gospel of grace! Lord, your kingdom come!

Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment (Kaleidobible: At the Last Judgment (via mshedden).  

A prayer for those in despair

Dear Lord, I know not from whence this darkness comes; this temptation to give in. I stand on the precipice of despair and I long to jump headfirst over the edge. Yet when my heart thinks of You, the darkness is overcome by the light. I am no longer able to give in. Be Thou my everlasting light. O Lord God, grant that I may forever turn my thoughts and heart to you in all my troubles. Amen.

A couple of days ago, I reblogged this prayer on my tumblr page.  I think this prayer is beautiful.  It expresses the seriousness of the problems we face and contrasts their bleakness to the efficacy of God's grace.  


Notice that the prayer doesn't say that it's easy to turn away from the precipice, that it's all good.  Life is hard, and that's a constant whether you're sober or not.  If we persevere, what changes is what we turn to for help.  What changes is our ability to carry on - with a little help - despite the weight of our burdens.  We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.