Bono, Karma, Grace, Nihilism, and Christianity
One of Dr. Bob's best. A few selections from Grace 4 U2:
Grace says someone else can do it better than you–if only you ask. Its message is an affront: it says we do not have all the answers–and the answers we do have are wrong–often disastrously so. Grace does not excuse our wrongs–it covers our wrongs. It doesn’t nullify Karma–it simply puts the bill on someone else’s tab. When we receive grace, someone else is bearing the price, the consequences for the hurt and the harm we have done. When we give grace, we choose to pick up the tab for another’s shortcomings, wrongdoing, destructiveness, evil. And that’s where we draw the line: we are happy to receive grace, but it is too much to ask of us to give it in return.
And that is the roadblock–ironically–which we need grace to overcome.
What is needed is a core inner transformation: we must become someone different. We are hard-wired to take–we need to be transformed to give. Trying to be other-oriented–following the rules, being a good person–without this transformation is counter-productive: it breeds resentment, self-righteousness, pride, self-sufficiency. But this inner transformation cannot be brought about by ourselves–it must come through others, and above all, from Another. But once this happens–and our will must be broken before it can–the miracle of motive change begins to take place.
Read the whole thing.
