"Love Never Fails"

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I have heard that God sees differently than we do the struggles and the lives of people who are profoundly damaged—to us, from the outside, it may seem that there is nothing but tragic disconnection, but in reality, there may be all kinds of small subtle interior movements, choices, and glories known only by God.

Sometimes God allows this hidden grace to leak out so that we are given little glimpses:

"A nun had been assigned to care for an elderly monk with advanced dementia. One day his babbling was of a kind that was distressing to her. Suddenly he broke free, as it were, looked her in the eye, and said, 'Dear sister, you are upset because of what I am saying. But do not fear. Inside, I am with God.'“ Frederica Mathewes-Green, The Jesus Prayer: Ancient Desert Prayer that Tunes the Heart to God

and

"I also think of some of the people I cared for in psychiatric institutions. One day I ran out of matches for my pipe while interviewing a woman suffering from severe schizophrenia. She had not spoken before, but she broke through her hallucinations to ask the nurse for a light for me. In a prison ward, I was struggling to communicate with an aggressive, demanding patient. In a moment of frustration I glanced across the ward and noticed another man watching me. His eyes were so tender and understanding that I felt supported and encouraged without either of us saying a word. That man, suffering from paranoid delusions, had killed seven people. And he was caring for me. Both these people were dysfunctional, yet grace flowed through them...No matter how oppressed we may be by internal addictions or external forces, love always ensures that some spark of freedom of choice remains alive within us." Gerald May, The Awakening Heart

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