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

by Kate Bowler

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

“You are perfect, my darling, just as you are. You are the gospel.”

All these words I am tripping over are benedictions. Live unburdened. Live free. Live without forevers that don’t always come. These are my best hopes for you, that you press forward at last. I don’t know how to die, but I know how to press this crushing grief into hope, hope for them. It doesn’t sound much like goodbye. It sounds more like this: Fare thee well, my loves.

It’s like we’re all floating on the ocean, holding on to our own inner tubes. We’re all floating around, but people don’t seem to know that we’re all sinking. Some are sinking faster than others, but we’re all sinking!”

When will I realize that surrender is not weakness?

I failed to love what was present and decided to love what was possible instead.

I’m rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic,