Have you ever read an author and wish that you were friends? Well, I do. All. The. Time.
I truly have a ton of “friends” who are long gone and done with this world, but my most recent loss was Rachel Held Evans. When I was building this blog, I told my erstwhile website designer (thanks Bonnie) that I wanted a picture with light and love, silhouetting real people. She found the picture that is on the home page of this site. It turned out (after we got permission for use) that it is a picture of one of my dear departed friends, Rachel Held Evans. This morning, I finished reading her latest book, Wholehearted Faith, which was published posthumously by her family and friends from a collection of her writings that remained unfinished due to her untimely death. Like her other books, it is a beautiful expression of a person of faith wrestling with that faith, and talking real talk about it. I have always found her very transparent, but this one was especially poignant because is her last.
If you haven’t read her, you shouldn’t start with this one. Frankly, you need to read the others first, because you need to see Rachel in her lively state of expression. Personally, I still chuckle at her book about “Biblical Womanhood.” I want to try a newer version at work, “Proverbs 31 meets Superior Court,” but I won’t (now) because I don’t want to be too much of a fan girl. Her books are full of faith and fun, poking insights into all of our religious expectations. Some have vilified her because she had a different perspective, but I, and many others, loved her for it. She wasn’t afraid to be herself, struggling and wrestling with God and life. But, all the time, you can hear her faith sparring with her questions. She was and is, if I may, a true searcher.
When I finished this book this morning, I just sat in silence for a moment, respecting a life of bold honesty and curiosity. I will leave you with this, “I want to believe in a faith that can handle all my questions. I want to believe in a religion that can not only tolerate, but also embrace my whole heart.” Met too, Rachel. Me too.
