Rach

“Not once after graduating from Bryan was I asked to make a case for the scientific feasibility of miracles, but often I was asked why Christians aren't more like Jesus. I may have met one or two people who rejected Christianity because they had difficulties with the deity of Christ, but most rejected Christianity because they thought it means becoming judgmental, narrow-minded, intolerant, and unkind. People didn't argue with me about the problem of evil; they argued about why Christians aren't doing more to alleviate human suffering, support the poor, and oppose violence and war. Most weren’t looking for a faith that provided all the answers; they were looking for one in which they were free to ask questions.”
― Rachel Held Evans, Evolving in Monkey Town: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask the Questions

“I am a Christian,” I concluded, “because the story of Jesus is still the story I’m willing to risk being wrong about.”
― Rachel Held Evans, Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again

“Maybe our Happily Ever After hadn't worked on the first shot. And maybe Happily Ever Afters weren't a singular event. Maybe they were something you had to work at, and build, and never give up on, as long as they were something you still wanted.

And maybe they weren't perfect. It wasn't like having Will right here and right now somehow erased all of the terrible things that had happened this year. And it didn't prevent terrible things from happening in the future. Sometimes in life, terrible things happened. And sometimes really, really amazing things happened. And sometimes those things all kind of happened at once.”
― Sophie Gonzales, Only Mostly Devastated

“Don't cheat your friendships. Don't ask them to mean less to you than they do, or think they only have value if they're a stop on the way to a *real* relationship. All relationships are real. Friendship can be as deep as the ocean. It's all a kind of love, and love isn't any one kind of thing.”
― Kate Racculia, Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts