Hannah’s Reviews > Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved > Status Update

“I failed to love what was present and decided to love what was possible instead.”

“This is a painful conclusion for so many who comb through the details of their tragedies and find no evidence that God was ever there. The world, it seems, is also filled with fathers and mothers begging for their children’s lives and hearing nothing but silence. And, ever after, every church service that sings that God is good rattles like tin in their ears.”

“There is a circular logic to these attempts to explain the course of any life. If you inspire people while dying, the plan for your life was that you would become an example to others. If you don’t and you die kicking and screaming, the plan was that you discover some important divine lessons. Either way, learn to accept God’s plan.”

Inchoate- just begun and so not fully formed or developed

“I have known Christ in so many good times, she said, sincerely and directly. And now I will know Him better in His sufferings.”

“We can only learn to know ourselves and do what we can - namely surrender our will and fulfill God’s will in us.”

“There is nothing so difficult that God cannot accomplish it. There are no setbacks, just setups. There are no trials, just tests of character. Tragedies are simply opportunities to claim a bigger, better miracle.”

“You can’t be happy unless you forgive them and set them aside. There is no way around it, buddy. You have to forgive.”

“Fair would mean that life rewarded the good and punished the bad, or at least pretended to.”

“What if rich did not have to mean wealthy, and whole did not have to mean healed? What if being people of “the gospel” meant that we are simply people with good news? God is here. We are loved. It is enough.”