BecauseOfRHE<\/strong><\/a> to encourage those whose pain darkest and deepest: Rachel\u2019s husband, parents, sister, and other close family members. And know that her young children will read these in due time and get to know their mother through your words.<\/p>\nBelow is something I posted on social media this weekend. It gives a sense of the deep respect, admiration, love\u2014and thankfulness\u2014I for this amazing human being. It was my introduction for Rachel when she spoke at Eastern University in October 2015:<\/p>\n
I am so very happy to welcome Rachel Held Evans to Eastern this morning.<\/em><\/p>\nYes, she\u2019s a New York Times best-selling author and mega-popular blogger. Yes, Rachel has been interviewed on The View, The Today Show, NPR, the BBC, The Washington Post, The London Times, and Oprah.com.<\/em><\/p>\nBut that\u2019s not why I\u2019m so happy that she\u2019s here with us today.<\/em><\/p>\nA few years ago, one of my children was in the middle of her college years\u2014at a Christian college\u2014and like every Christian college student ever was struggling with her faith.<\/em><\/p>\nBelieving had become more complicated than youth group and teen study Bibles had led her to believe. And the faith of her youth wasn\u2019t cutting it.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\nAnd so she began having so many questions\u2014doubts\u2014which was unsettling enough for her, but it was compounded by the nagging feeling that the very act of questioning at all was a sign of a faith that was weak and unraveling.<\/em><\/p>\nI gave her a copy of a book I had read some years earlier,\u00a0<\/em>Faith Unraveled\u2014back when it had the way coole\u00adr title:\u00a0<\/em>Evolving in Monkey Town.\u00a0She read it\u2014devoured it\u2014and when I saw her next\u2014well, her face, her tone of voice. I saw a big chance.<\/em><\/p>\nShe told me that she had found in Rachel\u2014finally\u2014someone who understood her. Someone who articulated her own experience and who was asking her questions\u2014and was brave enough to be vulnerable and write it all down. What a relief. Maybe I\u2019m not alone. Maybe I\u2019m not broken or dirty. <\/em><\/p>\nAnd most importantly, she caught a vision for a bigger God who loved her as she was, who could handle her questions and won\u2019t kick her to the curb for asking them.<\/em><\/p>\nThat\u2019s why I\u2019m happy that Rachel is here to speak to our Christian community, full of young people, some of whom are probably trying to figure some things out and who might also need to hear what my daughter heard years ago.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\nRachel is\u00a0immensely popular because she models a faith\u00ad\u00ad that has learned to \u201cLive the Questions\u201d\u2014and she pulls it off with vulnerability, honesty, humor, and kindness.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\nThat is Rachel\u2019s topic this morning, \u201cLiving the Questions,\u201d and I\u2019m looking forward, as I\u2019m sure all of you are, to hearing what she has to say. So let\u2019s not waste any more time. Please join me in welcoming Rachel this morning.<\/em><\/p>\nAs Rachel took the stage she said she had a tear in her eye.<\/p>\n
Back at ya, Rachel. Back at ya.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n