If God forgives us instantly and completely, then who are we to sulk in despair over our failures? If God finds no pleasure in condemning, then we have no right to find some sort of sadistic pleasure in self-contempt.

To allow the sins of yesterday, or even an hour ago, to rob our joy in life and send us on a downward spiral of self-condemnation is to refuse to believe and claim God’s unconditional love and forgiveness.

We are called to live in this present moment, to meet God in the now, and to invite God to engender in us a deep gratitude for God’s overflowing grace. Such gratitude enables us to be conduits of this grace as we live attuned to the needs all around us and to the movement of God’s Spirit in and through us.

from A Faith Worth Living: The Dynamics of an Inclusive Gospel