This Fearful, Sin-scarred State & the Wisdom of Tenderness

When my son Nate started blogging at Eight Strings, I didn't realize that he would quickly become one of the most eloquent gospel-bloggers in the whole dern blogging universe. Don't believe me? Check this out:

Not to receive(respond to) the unconditional love of the Father is to live in fear...crippling fear that one will not be accepted by his/her peers, him/herself, and finally God. It is to hopelessly and endlessly scrub one's actions, beliefs, and worship toward the end of approval and acceptance by others, rather than to genuinely respond to the Famous One's overtures of love. How then, do I deal with this fearful and sin-scarred state, which has and continues to characterize me? Well, having ruthlessly taken stock of myself in terms of sinful motives and desires as well as actions, I am to "be gentle with myself, as the Master is, humbly acknowledg[ing] that the Word hasn't taken sovereign possession of my life, accept my own need for further conversion, quickly repent, ask forgiveness, waste no time in self-recrimination, and smile at my own frailty."

He's quoting Brennan Manning's The Wisdom of Tenderness, by the way. You can read the entire post here.