Grace Must Wound

"It was Flannery O'Connor who said that 'grace must wound before it heals.' Her words help me to separate what is most true about life from what we want to be true. We want life to be painless. True grace is a hard sell because in order for the human heart to understand forgiveness and love, it must first experience darkness and isolation. A life lived under the rule of grace is a life of need which allows us to receive and appreciate the gift of the giver of grace...This is why we are called to a life we cannot handle alone, which can and will break us in the effort to live it-because grace must wound before it heals."
~Justin McRoberts