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

by Kate Bowler

The promise of heaven to me is this: someday I will get a new set of lungs and I will swim away. But first I will drown.

“I have known Christ in so many good times,” she said, sincerely and directly. “And now I will know Him better in His sufferings.”

“I hope you have a ‘Job’ experience,” writes one man bluntly, and I can’t think of anything worse to wish on someone.

We found an Ash Wednesday service at a local Catholic church because I have always loudly proclaimed that Catholics, of all God’s children, are wonderful at being sad.

Thy kingdom come, I pray, and my heart aches. And my tongue trips over the rest. Thy will be done.

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.