All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and the change is painful.
Interpretation
Change is often resisted by people because it can be uncomfortable and challenging, especially when it comes to personal growth.
This quote by Flannery O'Connor speaks to the inherent resistance found within human nature towards the concept of grace, which symbolizes transformation and acceptance of change. The idea that this change can be painful highlights the struggle many experience when they confront the need to grow or adapt, indicating that such growth often requires a departure from our familiar selves, which can be a challenging process.
In practice
In a motivational speech about personal development.
Let me make no bones about it: I write from the standpoint of Christian orthodoxy. Nothing is more repulsive to me than the idea of myself setting up a little universe of my own choosing and propounding a little immoralistic message. I write with a solid belief in all the Christian dogmas.
What people don’t realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross.
If you live today, you breath in nihilism ... it's the gas you breathe. If I hadn't had the Church to fight it with or to tell me the necessity of fighting it, I would be the stinkingest logical positivist you ever saw right now.
There won't be any biographies of me because, for only one reason, lives spent between the house and the chicken yard do not make exciting copy.
Knowing who you are is good for one generation only. You haven't the foggiest idea where you stand now or who you are
He loved her because it was his nature to do so, but there were times when he could not endure her love for him. There were times when it became nothing but pure idiot mystery.
So go ahead, break stuff. Break yourself on the once-hard edges of yourself. And recycle the debris into the foundation of your future.
We can choose to alleviate suffering. We can choose to work together for peace. We can make these changes - and we must.
Only some radical change can divert the downward course of my spirit, some startling new place or people to arrest the drift, the drag.
The further away we got from 9/11, the more I wanted to find some way to recover. I wanted to talk about the more anonymous corners of the city, because I think it's very important that not all of that anger was turned to revenge.
Peaceful, lawful protest - if it is effective - IS innately disruptive of “business as usual.” That is WHY it is effective.
Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance.
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