A quick hello again, but really, a few words on Rachel Held Evans.
Well...ahem. This is awkward. It's been awhile since I've posted anything. Here's the thing. February through April is always the hardest three months of my year. School wears me down. The weather is slightly depressing. I am buuuuuussssyyy. Between basketball, musical theater, school, meetings for the end of the school year, meetings for planning for next school year, well...it's exhausting. Also, we spent a chunk of that time thinking Jon was about to leave for 6 months. Then we spent another month adjusting to a new job and schedule. Also, I was writing all the dark and twisty things that can't go here and therefore had nothing left worthy of sharing.
BUT. It's now May! My calendar is blissfully blank of obligations beyond the orthodontist. (Dr. Cox and I will never be separated for more than a few weeks for at least another year.) This week, my planner includes going to the pool, getting my hair done, taking Charlotte to her friend's house. Our Classical Conversations group is done. Our other homeschool classes end on Thursday. Tommy's Chickfila is still being remodeled so I don't have to take him to work. We still have school work to do, but that's at home. We're getting used to our new schedule, I'm getting more vitamin D outside, we're going to UNIVERSAL STUDIOS, it's my birthday month AND Mother's Day month. May is MY month.
And now that the update is out of the way, I have something I want to say. A few days ago Rachel Held Evans died. Some of you might not know who she is. Honestly, I've only read one of her books and the occasional blog post. I know that I differ with her on some things, but what I have read from her spoke a deep love for God. She questioned her faith, the traditions, and the theology she was raised with in a public way, and I think that is brave. I don't know where she would have ended up on certain issues if she hadn't died at such a young age.
I have always told my kids that God is big enough to handle our questions and all of our feelings (including the dreaded anger). God. Can. Handle. It. There are things in the Bible that I simply do not understand. The Old Testament is brutal. It is full of war and rape and murder and deceit. How can these things be? How can God be in the middle of all this and still be good and just and holy and omniscient? These aren't questions I can even begin to answer here. And neither could RHE.
Even so, she was willing to ask the questions that many of us have asked silently in our souls or else the questions that we refuse to look at while skipping those pesky passages that make us squirm in our seat. Did she get things wrong? Yes. As do we all. She and the family and friends she left behind do not deserve the public venom I've read in the last few days. Comments from people essentially saying God took her out because her theology was wrong. That she's burning in Hell because she stopped identifying as an Evangelical after the Evangelical vote swung big for President Trump. That progressive and Christian are oxy-morons.
All these people thinking they know why God does what He does while also being able to see into people's hearts to know the state of Rachel's soul. It sounds to me like a lot of little gods parading around in the social media comment universe.
I don't know where Rachel is at the moment, but I think she's probably with Jesus. She asked hard questions and searched for those answers from the Bible, through prayer, through people that might have a deeper understanding. She asked her questions and she wrestled with her faith in public so that others could see that it's okay to search. We don't have to accept the status quo and the poor hermeneutics that have been preached for centuries. We can read and study for ourselves. If I'm not mistaken, one of the main thrusts of the Reformation was for people to being to read the Bible and study it themselves. Are we going to go backwards and once again tell people they don't need to question and study God's Word because we have experts to tell us what to believe?
My goal isn't to be right for the sake of being right. I hope to study to know Truth. I want to point to Jesus, to glorify God with every single breath. Every thought. As I wrestle with the hard questions, I know Jesus better. I have a Friend that can handle my questions and help me in my unbelief. As far as I can tell, so did she.
BUT. It's now May! My calendar is blissfully blank of obligations beyond the orthodontist. (Dr. Cox and I will never be separated for more than a few weeks for at least another year.) This week, my planner includes going to the pool, getting my hair done, taking Charlotte to her friend's house. Our Classical Conversations group is done. Our other homeschool classes end on Thursday. Tommy's Chickfila is still being remodeled so I don't have to take him to work. We still have school work to do, but that's at home. We're getting used to our new schedule, I'm getting more vitamin D outside, we're going to UNIVERSAL STUDIOS, it's my birthday month AND Mother's Day month. May is MY month.
And now that the update is out of the way, I have something I want to say. A few days ago Rachel Held Evans died. Some of you might not know who she is. Honestly, I've only read one of her books and the occasional blog post. I know that I differ with her on some things, but what I have read from her spoke a deep love for God. She questioned her faith, the traditions, and the theology she was raised with in a public way, and I think that is brave. I don't know where she would have ended up on certain issues if she hadn't died at such a young age.
I have always told my kids that God is big enough to handle our questions and all of our feelings (including the dreaded anger). God. Can. Handle. It. There are things in the Bible that I simply do not understand. The Old Testament is brutal. It is full of war and rape and murder and deceit. How can these things be? How can God be in the middle of all this and still be good and just and holy and omniscient? These aren't questions I can even begin to answer here. And neither could RHE.
Even so, she was willing to ask the questions that many of us have asked silently in our souls or else the questions that we refuse to look at while skipping those pesky passages that make us squirm in our seat. Did she get things wrong? Yes. As do we all. She and the family and friends she left behind do not deserve the public venom I've read in the last few days. Comments from people essentially saying God took her out because her theology was wrong. That she's burning in Hell because she stopped identifying as an Evangelical after the Evangelical vote swung big for President Trump. That progressive and Christian are oxy-morons.
All these people thinking they know why God does what He does while also being able to see into people's hearts to know the state of Rachel's soul. It sounds to me like a lot of little gods parading around in the social media comment universe.
I don't know where Rachel is at the moment, but I think she's probably with Jesus. She asked hard questions and searched for those answers from the Bible, through prayer, through people that might have a deeper understanding. She asked her questions and she wrestled with her faith in public so that others could see that it's okay to search. We don't have to accept the status quo and the poor hermeneutics that have been preached for centuries. We can read and study for ourselves. If I'm not mistaken, one of the main thrusts of the Reformation was for people to being to read the Bible and study it themselves. Are we going to go backwards and once again tell people they don't need to question and study God's Word because we have experts to tell us what to believe?
My goal isn't to be right for the sake of being right. I hope to study to know Truth. I want to point to Jesus, to glorify God with every single breath. Every thought. As I wrestle with the hard questions, I know Jesus better. I have a Friend that can handle my questions and help me in my unbelief. As far as I can tell, so did she.
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