Spiritual Themes>Mystery and Wonder|Quest Article

And so this man chose love and acceptance over prejudice, hate and fear. Instead of recruiting for the Aryan Nation, he now spends that time sharing what he knows with audiences around the country, so that the job of recruitment will be harder for those who continue to spread hate. Perhaps the Universalists are right, and the divine power of love is such that no person is, ultimately, unredeemable.

The idea of negotiating a period of “grace” sounds rather absurd. So does limiting the number of grace periods we’re allowed in our lifetimes. Grace is no longer something to be bartered for, nor is it something to be handed out with expectations attached to it. Grace is a gift freely given. It is never earned and it’s often undeserved. As the bumper sticker explains, “Grace Happens.”

The word “go” stuck in my mouth because we suddenly were plunging to the earth on a bungee cord. The air was whipping by our ears and all was a blur. I felt a surge of true terror, shut my eyes tightly, and screamed spontaneously at the top of my lungs, along with Lauren. We dropped endlessly, it seemed, and then, at the bottom, something fantastic happened.

In the postwar years, the CLF was an instrumental part of the emerging fellowship movement and it can be fairly said that the CLF has “spun off” more new congregations than any other—perhaps more than every other! When Unitarians and Universalists merged their two congregations in 1961 they established a single CLF.