QotD for 24 Oct., 2008

When I became a Christian, I was naive enough to believe that if I worked hard enough on spiritual practices and worshiped God with all my heart, all my mind, all my soul and all my strength, I would miraculously get a personality transplant and become a sweeter, nicer, and better person than ever before. That didn’t happen...I’m still ornery, angry, impatient and judgmental. God hasn’t taken that from me. It seems that God takes me as I am, and invites me to accept that I am loved as I am. This is called my particular struggle; to accept grace. Well, I don’t like grace, because I can’t control grace; it is freely given. So I wrestle with God over this. “Give me a personality transplant! I say, as I wrestle. “Change me!” And God flips me over and pins me there and says, “Change yourself if you want. But whether you will or not, I will love you and I will call you my child.” ---the Rev. Victoria Weinstein (a.k.a. "Peacebang") in a sermon to Church Hill United Methodist Church, Aug. 3, 2008