Tish’s first book, The Liturgy of the Ordinary, is one of my all time favorites, and this is one now, too. such a good and thorough and thoughtful look at grief, heaviness, sorrow, fear, pain, anguish — and hope, joy, peace, not despite those other things, but because of and in the midst of them.
“God himself took time to grieve. He is no stranger to the weight of heartbreak and horror, to the ache of swollen eyes that have cried so long they’ve run out of years. He did not numb himself or downplay the losses. He never gave himself a pat answer. God was–and remains–shockingly emotionally alive.”
“Is Jesus enough? If things didn’t work out, if God seemed distant, if my life plans crumbled–was Jesus still enough? Or was I instead seeking Jesus and success, Jesus and happiness, Jesus and a faithful ministry?”
“I rarely resonate with the image of Jesus as a judge. I gravitate to my hippie version of Jesus, with a flower tucked behind his ear. I’m drawn to his grace, his kindness, his beauty. But when I encounter those afflicted by entrenched injustice, I yearn for a God who sees, and who will work on behalf of those abandoned by the world. When we encounter affliction, we long for a day when everything that is broken–in our bodies, in nature, in relationships, in society, in politics, in policing, in global economies–will be mended and made right. We yearn for an “end” to affliction in both senses of the word–that there is a telos, a design, to all this seemingly needless and random human suffering, but also that affliction will be overcome and abolished. This is our hope: that heaven will crash into earth…”
perhaps the greater 