A few quotes/thoughts from chapter two of Yancey's "What's So Amazing About Grace:

He (William James) wrote of the ascetism of a French country priest who decided "that he should never smell a flower, never drink when parched with thirst, never drive away a fly, never show disgust before a repugnant object, never complain of anything that had to do with his personal comfort, never sit down, never lean upon his elbows when he was kneeling.
- This one connect with me as I still remember when I was an altar boy growing up in the Catholic Church and was blasted by the priest because I went down on a knee to tie my shoes. I didn't know that was a sin.

What I (Lewis Smedes) needed more than pardon was a sense that God accepted me, owned me, held me, affirmed me, and would never let go of me even if he was not too impressed with what he had on his hands.
- That may be the biggest paradigm shift that I have made in the last year or so. God loves us! God is love!! Yes, there is a judgment for those who don't know Him, but for those who do, there is no condemnation, and for those who don't yet know Him, He is there waiting for us. We in the Church need to know the love of God more than the Judgment for non-believers, again, "there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus..."

India's caste system was so labyrinthine that in the 1930's the British discovered a new caste they had not encountered in three centuries of presence there: assigned the role of washing clothes for the Untouchables, these poor creatures believed they would contaminate higher castes by sight, so they emerged only at night and avoided all contact with other people.
Crazy!

I'm very much enjoying my rereading of Yancey's material!