Though we Protestants talk about justification by faith (versus by works), we often act as if the key to the spiritual life is adding all the active virtues, doing great things for God, sharing the gospel with others, and the like. [Medieval mystic Meister] Eckhart said, no, it’s a matter of subtraction. How much can you let go of? It’s not a matter of anxiously having to prove yourself to your teachers, to your parents, or to God so as to finally make yourself acceptable. It’s a matter of letting go of all those compulsive needs for approval and recognizing htat only after you abandon those compulsions will you be able to accpet God’s utterly free grace that comes in the gospel, in Jesus.
— Belden Lane, commenting on the spirituality of the Desert Fathers.
