Faith isn't about having everything figured out ahead of time; faith is about following the quiet voice of God without having everything figured out ahead of time.
Rachel Held EvansRead
My friend Adele describes fundamentalism as holding so tightly to your beliefs that your fingernails leave imprints on the palm of your hand... I think she's right. I was a fundamentalist not because of the beliefs I held but because of how I held them: with a death grip. It would take God himself to finally pry them out of my hands. (p.17-18)
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the struggle between rigid beliefs and the flexibility of faith.
In this quote, Rachel Held Evans discusses how fundamentalism can manifest as an intense grip on beliefs, suggesting that when individuals adhere to their convictions too tightly, it hinders personal growth and understanding. She emphasizes that it's not merely the beliefs themselves that are problematic, but rather the attitude of holding them so fiercely that it becomes painful and restrictive, indicating that true faith may require letting go of such grips.
Themes
FundamentalismBeliefsFaithGrowthRigidity
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about faith and belief systems, this quote can illustrate the dangers of rigidity.
More from Rachel Held Evans
All quotes →While the word charity connotes a single act of giving, justice speaks to right living, of aligning oneself with the world in a way that sustains rather than exploits the rest of creation. Justice is not a gift; it’s a lifestyle, a commitment to the Jewish concept of tikkun olam—‘repairing the world.’
Rachel Held EvansRead
Evangelicalism is like my religious mother tongue. I revert to it whenever I’m angry or excited or surrounded by other people who understand what I’m saying. And it’s the language in which I most often hear God’s voice on the rare occasion that it rises above the noise.
Rachel Held EvansRead
Similar quotes
Too often, wealthy people born on third base blithely criticize the poor for failing to hit home runs. The advantaged sometimes perceive empathy as a sign of muddle-headed weakness rather than as a marker of civilization.
Nicholas KristofRead
Because the twentieth century was a century of violence, let us make the twenty-first a century of dialogue.
Dalai LamaRead
In fact men will fight for a superstition quite as quickly as for a living truth - often more so, since a superstition is so intangible you cannot get at it to refute it, but truth is a point of view, and so is changeable.
HypatiaRead
I think that ideas exist outside of ourselves. I think somewhere, we're all connected off in some very abstract land. But somewhere between there and here ideas exist.
David LynchRead
We often get blinded by the forms in which content is produced, rather than the job that the content does.
Tim O'ReillyRead
Fashion your life as a garland of beautiful deeds.
Gautama BuddhaRead