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81 " This will be a hard journey,” he says. “Is there anything you can set down? "
― Kate Bowler , No Cure for Being Human: And Other Truths I Need to Hear
82 " Control is a drug, and we are all hooked, whether or not we believe in the prosperity gospel's assurance that we can muster the future with our words and attitudes. I can barely admit to myself that I have almost no choice but to surrender, but neither can those around me. I can hear it in my sister-in-law's voice as she tells me to keep fighting. I can see it in my academic friends, who do what researchers do...Buried in all their concern is the unspoken question: Do I have any control? "
― Kate Bowler
83 " takes great courage to live. Period. There are fears and disappointments and failures every day, and, in the end, the hero dies. It must be cinematic to watch us from above. "
84 " I failed to love what was present and decided to love what was possible instead. "
― Kate Bowler , Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved
85 " keep having the same unkind thought—I am preparing for death and everyone else is on Instagram. I know that’s not fair—that life is hard for everyone—but I sometimes feel like I’m the only one in the world who is dying. "
86 " 6. “I’ve done some research and…” I thought I should listen to my oncologist and my nutritionist and my team of specialists, but it turns out that I should be listening to you. Yes, please, tell me more about the medical secrets that only one flaxseed provider in Orlando knows. Wait, let me get a pen. "
87 " Time really is a circle; I can see that now. We are trapped between a past we can’t return to and a future that is uncertain. And it takes guts to live here, in the hard space between anticipation and realization "
88 " It is a strange fact that sometimes the people who love you most will be among the first to stop worrying about you. An inflexible optimism stands as a barrier between you. You will be fine. Anything to the contrary seems too difficult to communicate. "
89 " In my finite life, the mundane has begun to sparkle. The things I love—the things I should love—become clearer, brighter. "
90 " But tge truth is somewhere inside of me: there is no formula. We live and we are loved and we are gone. Tumors budded and spread across my colon and liver without my consent, and here I am. "
91 " Based on the information we have about people with Stage Four colon cancer, the survival rate is fourteen percent," he said and began to scan the room as if looking for a window to climb out of. "
92 " Do people age into acceptance? Is this personality or maturity or a natural realism? Had he already accomplished what he wanted to do? Did he see his kids get married, reach an anniversary, or hit a milestone? What amounted to enough? "
93 " stumbling in the debris of dreams they thought they were entitled to and plans they didn’t realize they had made. "
94 " We all want our troubles to mean something, to have stature and be validated—but we gain nothing by pitting our woes against another’s. Pain should unite us, as fellow sufferers, as fellow humans. "
― Kate Bowler , Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection
95 " Yes! Thank you. I need you to know that these books are not suitable to be sold in a hospital. " I point to a pile of Christian bestsellers I've made on the floor, books that I had carefully studied and documented in a comprehensive history of the movement known as the prosperity gospel. "
96 " It was an easy lie that has wormed its way into my mind: I am the center that must hold. It is a thought I picked up so early on in my life that I can't bring myself to question it. It is something closer to a reflex. Life is unstable because it is life. But I am steady. "
97 " He's writing about the 'prosperity gospel.' He's saying God will reward you with money and health if you have the right kind of faith. Joel Osteen is America's most famous prosperity preacher. "
98 " Time is not an arrow anymore, and heaven is not tomorrow. It's here, for a second, when I could drown in the beauty of what I have but also what may never be. "
99 " They would find something simple and that would be the end of it. I'd just have to schedule my life around a surgery, nothing major. "
100 " Time really is a circle; I can see that now. We are trapped between a past we can't return to and a future that is uncertain. And it takes guts to live here, in the hard space between anticipation and realization. How quickly we believe that nothing can be new again but then, look. Another Leonard Cohen song is being sung. Hallelujah. "