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A review by itsautumntime9
Out of Sorts: Making Peace with an Evolving Faith by Sarah Bessey
5.0
May we be...the ones who hold our opinions loosely and yet love ferociously.
But I had to learn that taking the Bible seriously doesn’t mean taking everything literally.
Anyone who gets to the end of their life with the exact same beliefs and opinions as they had at the beginning is doing it wrong.
I believe our most sacred moments are often our most human moments.
There is a natural curiosity that is inherent to children. I think it's a bit dishonest to use, 'Have faith like a child,' an a way to shut a person down. Like, somehow, it means we're not supposed to wonder, we're just supposed to accept. Now that I have a house full of small humanity, I think I'm beginning to understand why Jesus would encourage us to have faith like a child.
They don't know. And so they ask.
We don't know. And so we ask.
I pray for bravery and guts, for honesty and discernment. I know you have a lot to lose - we all do when we lay down our certainties and our black-and-white thinking.
Jesus remains. He is worth it all. He is under the steeples and in the wilderness. He is in the megachurch and in the spiritual conversation at the bar. He inhabits our certainty and also our doubt. He is every good thing that ever was or will be, and He is still in the business of saving our lives. Really, that’s the thing. It is our hope and salvation, and everything else is just details.
Whether it's racism, patriarchy, warmongering, greed, or child trafficking, it's counter to God's Kingdom. But the people caught in those systems are rarely the enemies; often they are just as caught, as longing for a rescue as the rest of us. We don't battle against flesh and blood, not really, but against the powers and principalities that hold us all captive.
There are a lot of Jesuses running around these days. There is the Jesus who wants you to find a good parking spot at the mall. There is the Jesus invoked at music awards, and the one raised like a flag to celebrate capitalism and affluence. There is the Jesus drawing lines about who is in and who is out. And there is the Jesus on both sides of the picket lines. There is the one in the slums, and the one in suburbia, and the one in Africa, and the one in America, and the one in Calgary. There is the Jesus who told Mother Theresa to touch the lepers and love with her hands. There is the one who lead the bravest and kindest of men and women all the way to the end. And then there is the Jesus who supposedly inspired manifestos of hate, crusades, murder, and wars. And then there is the Jesus who likes everything you like, and hates everything, or everyone, you hate and is quite pleased with everything about you. I like that Jesus best sometimes.
After all, the Israelites saw God in tribal ways. How else would they experience God but within their unique place and time?
The Bible is the story of God told from the limited point of view of real people living at a certain place and time...These ancient writers had an adequate understanding of God for them in their time, but not for all of time.
I don't want to be swallowed by the darkness. Nor do I want to be blinded by the beautiful facade. No, I want to be part of a people who see the darkness, know it's real, and then, then, then, light a candle anyway. And hold that candle up against the wind and pass along our light wherever it's needed from our own homes to the halls of legislation to the church pulpit to the kitchens of the world.
Set out, pilgrim. Set out into the freedom and the wandering. Find your people. God is much bigger, wilder, more generous, and more wonderful than you imagined.
But I had to learn that taking the Bible seriously doesn’t mean taking everything literally.
Anyone who gets to the end of their life with the exact same beliefs and opinions as they had at the beginning is doing it wrong.
I believe our most sacred moments are often our most human moments.
There is a natural curiosity that is inherent to children. I think it's a bit dishonest to use, 'Have faith like a child,' an a way to shut a person down. Like, somehow, it means we're not supposed to wonder, we're just supposed to accept. Now that I have a house full of small humanity, I think I'm beginning to understand why Jesus would encourage us to have faith like a child.
They don't know. And so they ask.
We don't know. And so we ask.
I pray for bravery and guts, for honesty and discernment. I know you have a lot to lose - we all do when we lay down our certainties and our black-and-white thinking.
Jesus remains. He is worth it all. He is under the steeples and in the wilderness. He is in the megachurch and in the spiritual conversation at the bar. He inhabits our certainty and also our doubt. He is every good thing that ever was or will be, and He is still in the business of saving our lives. Really, that’s the thing. It is our hope and salvation, and everything else is just details.
Whether it's racism, patriarchy, warmongering, greed, or child trafficking, it's counter to God's Kingdom. But the people caught in those systems are rarely the enemies; often they are just as caught, as longing for a rescue as the rest of us. We don't battle against flesh and blood, not really, but against the powers and principalities that hold us all captive.
There are a lot of Jesuses running around these days. There is the Jesus who wants you to find a good parking spot at the mall. There is the Jesus invoked at music awards, and the one raised like a flag to celebrate capitalism and affluence. There is the Jesus drawing lines about who is in and who is out. And there is the Jesus on both sides of the picket lines. There is the one in the slums, and the one in suburbia, and the one in Africa, and the one in America, and the one in Calgary. There is the Jesus who told Mother Theresa to touch the lepers and love with her hands. There is the one who lead the bravest and kindest of men and women all the way to the end. And then there is the Jesus who supposedly inspired manifestos of hate, crusades, murder, and wars. And then there is the Jesus who likes everything you like, and hates everything, or everyone, you hate and is quite pleased with everything about you. I like that Jesus best sometimes.
After all, the Israelites saw God in tribal ways. How else would they experience God but within their unique place and time?
The Bible is the story of God told from the limited point of view of real people living at a certain place and time...These ancient writers had an adequate understanding of God for them in their time, but not for all of time.
I don't want to be swallowed by the darkness. Nor do I want to be blinded by the beautiful facade. No, I want to be part of a people who see the darkness, know it's real, and then, then, then, light a candle anyway. And hold that candle up against the wind and pass along our light wherever it's needed from our own homes to the halls of legislation to the church pulpit to the kitchens of the world.
Set out, pilgrim. Set out into the freedom and the wandering. Find your people. God is much bigger, wilder, more generous, and more wonderful than you imagined.