By Rachel Held Evans and Jeff Chu
It took me a long time to read this book because I would read a chapter or two and then start crying about Rachel Held Evans’ death, and I’d put it down for weeks. This book definitely helped me to grieve losing my favorite spiritual writer. I felt like she was speaking to all of us from the grave. There is such a timelessness to her writing. Such truth and depth that will always be true, valid or important. And I am so grateful to Jeff Chu for pulling it together. I heard him in mentions of “masks” and movements like “Black lives matter” that Rachel did not live to see.
This book is about Wholehearted Faith, which, thankfully, doesn’t mean doubtless faith. I think it means that we are pouring our lives out because of our faith in the God of love. The book delves into really loving our enemies–having a “thick skin, tender heart.” She talks about having a renewed heart (Ezekiel 36) while also expressing the depths of our emotions and leaning on the Psalms in prayer, learning new ways to pray, different from the ways of the Pharisees… and perhaps the white supremacist “Christians”.
There was a chapter called “Jonathan Edwards is not my homeboy,” which is a powerful and important statement (and chapter) white American Evangelicals need to hear! That God does not hate any human being, is tantamount to the gospel message itself and it’s time we let the sink in!
There is a powerful chapter about the creation story of Genesis, about original sin VS creation being originally “good.” I loved Rachel’s thoughts and exegetical labors therein and this was probably my personal favorite chapter.
Rachel addressed various aspects of church and faith life, including sabbath rest and the baptism of her children. She wrote about shalom-peace and telos-endings. She spoke of real-life difficulties with online critics and of her beautiful family. This book was a tribute to all of them and to us readers. I’m not sure if it was Rachel herself, or Jeff Chu who took the time to name-drop several relatives that one can only hope will read this book and feel close to their beloved Rachel. Her spirit lives on in this book, as it also does in all of her books.
Thank you so much for this precious book.