Foreword

During sixty-four years of pastoral ministry one becomes exposed to almost every area of human need and weakness.

The sympathetic pastor soon discovers that the great majority of people become frustrated by their failures. It is not that these failures are "large" immoralities, but rather the cumulative force of multitudes of minor human infractions of a popularly conceived holiness.

People desire some kind of relationship with God because of an innate need. However, they easily become frustrated at the seeming impossibility of such an experience. For very normal humans, religion can become a constant stimulus to guilt and negative thinking because of their sense of inadequacy and unworthiness.

Unrealistic goals and beliefs together with the exploitation of emotions by certain brands of preaching have driven multitudes of good people from the churches and yet even their absence becomes a source of guilt to them.

It is evidently the desire of God that men be free of these anxieties. "Whom the Son sets free is free indeed."

In the following pages I have endeavored to emphasize the possibility of a warm relationship with God compatible with the realities of our humanity.

Robert M. McMillan
Tallahassee, Florida