281 Quotes by Rachel Held Evans

Looking back, I suspect their reactions had less to do with disdain for my doubt and more to do with fear of their own... they weren’t rejecting me for being different, they were rejecting me for being familiar, for calling out all those quiet misgivings most Christians keep hidden in the dark corners of their hearts and would rather not name.

We may wish for answers, but God rarely gives us answers. Instead, God gathers us up into soft, familiar arms and says, “Let me tell you a story.

But as nearly every denomination in the United States faces declining membership and waning influence, Christians may need to get used to the idea of measuring significance by something other than money, fame, and power. No one ever said the fruit of the Spirit is relevance or impact or even revival.

I began to suspect that perhaps the problem lies not in God’s goodness but in how we measure it. Laxmi and Kanakaraju and the women and children at the AIDS ministry, they prayed for basic things – food, shelter, health, peace – and they did not always receive. Yet I saw in their eyes the kind of joy and spiritual connectedness that most Christians I know long for.

It’s the oldest religious shortcut in the book: the easiest way to make oneself righteous is to make someone else a sinner.

Every good Christian knows that the best way to insulate yourself from criticism or input is to say that God wants whatever you want.

I would rather people think I don’t bathe enough than think I don’t read enough.

When we understand the function of origin stories, both in our culture and in our lives, we can make better sense of those found in Scripture.

Jesus invites us into a story that is bigger than ourselves, bigger than our culture, bigger even than our imaginations, and yet we get to tell that story with the scandalous particularity of our particular moment and place in time. We are storytelling creatures because we are fashioned in the image of a storytelling God. May we never neglect the gift of that. May we never lose our love for telling the tale.