Home > Work > Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved

Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved QUOTES

Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved QUOTES

1 " I would love to report that what I found in the prosperity gospel was something so foreign and terrible to me that I was warned away, but what I discovered was both familiar and painfully sweet: the promise that I could curate my life, minimize my losses, and stand on my successes. And no matter how many times I rolled my eyes at the creeds outrageous certainties, I craved them just the same. I had my own Prosperity Gospel, a flowering weed grown in with all the rest. "

― Kate Bowler , Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved

2 " I think I'm running out of time...," I say finally. "I'm not trying to be dramatic, but here's what I worry about: What if you are too?" She knows what I am saying...her selflessness has caused her to surrender too much of herself to "someday." And now someday has come, at least for me. "

― Kate Bowler , Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved

3 " I read an article about how people in grief swear because they feel the English language has reached its limit in a time of inarticulate sorrow. Or at least that is what I tell people when I am casually dropping f-bombs over lunch as I explain the mysteries of Lent. "

― Kate Bowler , Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved

4 " What would it mean for Christians to give up that little piece of the American Dream that says, "You are limitless"? Everything is not possible. The mighty kingdom of God is not yet here. What if 'rich' did not have to mean 'wealthy', and 'whole' did not have to mean 'healed'? What if being the people of "the gospel" meant that we are simply people with good news? God is here. We are loved. It is enough. "

― Kate Bowler , Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved

5 " I used to think that grief was about looking backward, old men saddled with regrets or young ones pondering should-haves. I see now that it is about eyes squinting through tears into an unbearable future. The world cannot be remade by the sheer force of love. A brutal world demands capitulation to what seems impossible--separation. Brokeness. An end without an ending. "

― Kate Bowler , Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved

6 " God, I am walking to the edge of a cliff. Build me a bridge. I need to get to the other side. "

― Kate Bowler , Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved

7 " I can't reconcile the way that the world is jolted by events that are wonderful and terrible, the gorgeous and the tragic. Except that I am beginning to believe that these opposites do not cancel each other out. I see a middle aged woman in the waiting room of the cancer clinic, her arms wrapped around the frail frame of her son. She squeezes him tightly, oblivious to the way he looks down at her sheepishly. He laughs after a minute, a hostage to her impervious love. Joy persists somehow and I soak it in. The horror of cancer has made everything seem like it is painted in bright colors. I think the same thoughts again and again. Life is so beautiful. Life is so hard. "

― Kate Bowler , Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved

8 " If I were to invent a sin to describe what that was—for how I lived—I would not say it was simply that I didn’t stop to smell the roses. It was the sin of arrogance, of becoming impervious to life itself. 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

9 " Aging is a fucking privilege. "

― Kate Bowler , Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved

10 " Plans are made. Plans come apart. New delights or tragedies pop up in their place. And nothing human or divine will map out this life, this life that has been more painful than I could have imagined. More beautiful than I could have imagined. "

― Kate Bowler , Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved

11 " A lot of Christians like to remind me that heaven is my true home, which makes me want to ask them if they would like to go home first. "

― Kate Bowler , Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved

12 " But I don’t want ice cream, I want a world where there is no need for pediatric oncology, UNICEF, military budgets, or suicide rails on the top floors of tall buildings. The world would drip with mercy. Thy kingdom come, I pray, and my heart aches. And my tongue trips over the rest. Thy will be done. "

― Kate Bowler , Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved

13 " God is here. We are loved. It is enough. "

― Kate Bowler , Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved

14 " Life is a privilege, not a reward. "

― Kate Bowler , Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved

15 " Control is a drug, and we are all hooked, whether or not we believe in the prosperity gospel’s assurance that we can master the future with our words and attitudes. "

― Kate Bowler , Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved

16 " We’re all terminal,” he says simply, and it answers my unspoken question. How do you stop? You just stop. You come to the end of yourself. And then you take a deep breath. And say a prayer. And get back to work. "

― Kate Bowler , Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved

17 " Life is a series of losses," says my father-in-law one afternoon...."What Dad?"..."oh, I was just thinking about how, with age, it is one loss after another, " he replies. "Huh." He is right. With age we slowly lose our senses and even our pleasures, our parents and then our friends, preparing us for our own absence. An interesting thought. "

― Kate Bowler , Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved

18 " Don’t skip to the end,” he said, gently. “Don’t skip to the end. "

― Kate Bowler , Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved

19 " At a time when I should have felt abandoned by God, I was not reduced to ashes. I felt like I was floating, floating on the love and prayers of all those who hummed around me like worker bees, bringing notes and flowers and warm socks and quilts embroidered with words of encouragement. They came in like priests and mirrored back to me the face of Jesus. "

― Kate Bowler , Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved

20 " I was immediately worn out by the tyranny of prescriptive joy. "

― Kate Bowler , Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved