A review by cosmicbookworm
Out of Sorts: Making Peace with an Evolving Faith by Sarah Bessey

inspiring reflective slow-paced

3.25

Sarah Bessey combines theology and storytelling in a second memoir.

I greatly appreciate her work. She has gone through the same kinds of thought shifts that I have but comes from a different place than I am and is in a different place than I am now, simply because she grew up Pentecostal and speaking in tongues. That is an experience that I can't relate to. 

As the book unfolded, it veered slightly from its central theme. It was heavy on the memoir side for my liking, but Bessey's gentle style and emphasis on loving those with differing views resonated deeply with me. This is a valuable lesson for those of us who are in a period of reevaluation and facing resistance from those who feel threatened by our evolving perspectives.

This paragraph in chapter 4 resonates with me: "But I had to learn that taking the Bible seriously doesn't mean taking everything literally. I had to learn to read the whole Bible through the lens of Jesus, and I had to learn to stop making it into something it wasn't—a glorified answer book or rule book or magic spell. I had to stop trying to reduce the Bible to something I could tame or wield as a tool. I had to let the Bible be everything it was meant to be, to cast away the idols of certainty, materialism, and control."