Change of Heart

by Jodi Picoult

When you’re different, sometimes you don’t see the millions of people who accept you for what you are. All you notice is the one person who doesn’t.

If you bring forth what is within you, what is within you will save you. If you don’t bring forth what is within you, what is within you will destroy you.

“It’s not too late to find your faith.” “What you really mean is that it’s not too late for me to find your faith,” I answered, scooping up Oliver as he made a mad dash for the open door. “You know what I believe? That religion served its historical purpose—it was a set of laws to live by, before we had a justice system. But even when it starts out with the best of intentions, things get screwed up, don’t they? A group bands together because they believe the same things, and then somehow that gets perverted so that anyone who doesn’t believe those things is wrong. Honestly, even if there was a religion founded on the principle of doing good for other people, or helping them with their personal rights, like I do every day, I wouldn’t join . . . because it would still be a religion.”

Tom pushed a pamphlet into my hand and beat a hasty retreat off my porch. As I closed the door behind him I glanced down at the cover. GOD + YOU = ∞ “If there’s any math to religion,” I muttered, “it’s division.”

“You said that the purpose of religion was to bring people together. But does it, really? Or does it—knowingly, purposefully, and intentionally—break them apart?”

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” —ALBERT EINSTEIN