J.C.,

When you write "grace and conversion", I think of an adult whose heart the Lord opened to have an understanding of salvation solely in Jesus Christ. Some are like I was, born into an active Christian family, raised on a small farm in the country in nature among animals, attending a conservative church. I cannot point to any date in which I was born anew, or then started believing in Jesus Christ. If I may put it one way, I grew up as if Jesus was part of the family, a family member who is God Almighty. I cannot say when I was born anew, nor when the realization was such that I had understanding of believing and obeying the gospel. I remember professing my faith in front of the church when I was 9 years old and then was being baptized on an Easter Sunday in 1951.

There are so many individual experiences it must vary. Yet, as to your mention of "compel", I thought of an illustration I've heard a pastor use in the past -

"No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day." (John 6:44 NRSV)

That word "drawn" translates the same Greek word used in the following statement -

"Then all the city was aroused, and the people rushed together. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and immediately the doors were shut." (Acts 21:30 NRSV)

In our day I think of conversion as applying to those coming out of indifference or modern day type of idolatry, or from a false christian religion into the faith of Jesus Christ.