Even If He Doesn't Quotes

“We don’t have to understand someone’s pain to make room for it. We don’t have to know what someone is carrying to decide whether or not their emotional state is justified. We can just be glad that they’re with us and let them know that they’re safe as they are, baggage and all.”
― Kristen LaValley, Even If He Doesn't: What We Believe about God When Life Doesn’t Make Sense

“When we’re judgemental of others, it’s typically because we’re craving a sense of control. If we can have an airtight sense of what’s right and what’s wrong, we won’t be touched by someone else’s crisis. We try to pin down what caused their pain in an attempt to make sure the same thing won’t happen to us. Instead of facing the discomfort of admitting that we don’t know the answer, we jump to overconfidence in what we think we know.”
― Kristen LaValley, Even If He Doesn't: What We Believe about God When Life Doesn’t Make Sense

“The comfort of ‘even if he doesn’t’ isn’t just that one day he will, which I fully believe. It’s that he’s good anyway. He’s faithful anyway. He’s loving anyway. Even when he doesn’t.”
― Kristen LaValley, Even If He Doesn't: What We Believe about God When Life Doesn’t Make Sense

“When we’re obsessed with finding the purpose for everything, we’re seeking comfort in the purpose rather than the comfort of Christ.”
― Kristen LaValley, Even If He Doesn't: What We Believe about God When Life Doesn’t Make Sense

“Suffering will come... we know this. At some point, your heart will ache. And when that happens, your heartache will unearth what you believe about God's role in your suffering.”
― Kristen LaValley, Even If He Doesn't: What We Believe about God When Life Doesn’t Make Sense

“When we're obsessed with finding the purpose for everything, we're seeking comfort in the purpose rather than the comfort of Christ.”
― Kristen LaValley, Even If He Doesn't: What We Believe about God When Life Doesn’t Make Sense

“I don’t find comfort in knowing Max is waiting for us in heaven—it just isn’t tangible for me. I loved him on earth, and I want him on earth. Heaven is too abstract when it comes to addressing gaping wounds in the soul.”
― Kristen LaValley, Even If He Doesn't: What We Believe about God When Life Doesn’t Make Sense

“Suffering reveals the prosperity gospel in us.
ch 2, p 33”
― Kristen LaValley, Even If He Doesn't: What We Believe about God When Life Doesn’t Make Sense

“We can’t make the ache lighter by turning it into something beautiful. Even if we were able to discover the reason it happened or redeem the pain into something useful, the pain will always have happened. The bowl will have always been cracked.”
― Kristen LaValley, Even If He Doesn't: What We Believe about God When Life Doesn’t Make Sense

“We have human bodies. We have human minds. We are subject to those limitations, and outside a supernatural miracle, some wounds don’t heal until we are joined with Christ in glory. In order to live our inescapably human lives, we have to make peace with suffering.”
― Kristen LaValley, Even If He Doesn't: What We Believe about God When Life Doesn’t Make Sense

“When our image of God is dependent on things going the way we believe they should, our image of him is centered on us, not on him. But true faith isn’t believing God is good just because we have proof of it. Faith is believing that he’s good even when we don’t have proof.”
― Kristen LaValley, Even If He Doesn't: What We Believe about God When Life Doesn’t Make Sense

“But not everything that happens in our lives is supposed to be some grand heavenly lesson. Instead of saying, ‘God is trying to teach me something - I have to figure out what it is so I can learn my lesson and end my suffering,’ we can say, ‘I don’t know whether I’m supposed to be learning something here. I’ll stay open to teaching of the Holy Spirit and trust the Lord to bring peace and healing, regardless of whether I have something to learn.”
― Kristen LaValley, Even If He Doesn't: What We Believe about God When Life Doesn’t Make Sense

“While it's true that God can use our suffering to form our character and make us more like him, simply belonging to him put a target on our backs for suffering. The idea that God wants use to suffer (for any reason) stands in direct contradiction to the life, testimony, and work of Christ. Jesus came to take our suffering on himself, not to have us prove something by our own suffering.”
― Kristen LaValley, Even If He Doesn't: What We Believe about God When Life Doesn’t Make Sense

“When we encounter some kind of pain that doesn't fit our faith equation, our thoughts about God and faith in him are shaken, sometimes to the point of abandoning of faith. The math of a pain-free life doesn't add up, which leads to the logical (albeit incorrect) conclusion that everything else we believe is also false.”
― Kristen LaValley, Even If He Doesn't: What We Believe about God When Life Doesn’t Make Sense

“Grief reveals to us how ill-equipped we are on our own to process and handle our pain. It makes our spirits and our bodies feel broken and weak. But it's in our weakness that the strength of Christ is made perfect.”
― Kristen LaValley, Even If He Doesn't: What We Believe about God When Life Doesn’t Make Sense

“Sometimes we fancy ourselves as God's publicity agents, leveraging suffering for a divine marketing moment. "Look at what this good thing will mean for your image, God! Look how many people will believe in you if you do this!"... We assume God can only be glorified if the outcome lands in our favor... Will God still be glorified in this if things don't go our way? What if... he doesn't? Because sometimes he doesn't.”
― Kristen LaValley, Even If He Doesn't: What We Believe about God When Life Doesn’t Make Sense