Listening…


by Rachel Held Evans Read Distraction Free
'1996 Jocassee Quiet Solitude' photo (c) 2007, anoldent - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

“Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.” 
1 Kings 19:11-12

I’m a fan of the internet. 

It’s where I connect with you. It’s where I encounter all sorts of new ideas and perspective and interesting people. It’s where I get to practice writing daily. It’s where I first learned of chocolate cake mix waffles. 

But I need a break. I need some “wilderness time”—both figuratively and literally—to rest, to quiet myself, and to just listen for a little while. 

In our hyper-connected world, its’ easy to forget that listening is the most important part of the writing process and a critical component to faith. With all the chatter, with all the rhetorical earthquakes and windstorms and wildfires that rush in and out of our lives each day, it can be hard to quiet ourselves long enough to recognize the gentle whisper of God. 

So that’s what I’m going to do, or at least try to do, for the next couple weeks. I’m signing off the internet—Twitter, Facebook, the blog, Pinterest, (even WebMD unless that rash comes back)—not because the internet is bad, but because it’s a tool that I want to use for good and I can’t do that when I’m burned out. 

…Well, I probably could, but after a while y’all would notice.

Right now the plan is to be “back” July 22, at which time we will pick up our interview series on hell with “Ask a traditionalist…” 

In the meantime, people often tell me that they read the blog religiously, but haven’t gotten around to reading my books. This is always a little embarrassing for me because I save my best, most personal writing for my books and tend to hammer out most of my blog posts before I’ve even had my second cup of coffee in the morning, which is a hazy, disorienting time in which I am strictly prohibited from making important life decisions or ordering things from the internet. So—shameless plug—if you really want to hear from me over the next few weeks, consider adding Evolving in Monkey Town or A Year of Biblical Womanhood to your summer reading list. Both are almost entirely coherent, which will be a nice change of pace. 

monkey-town.jpg
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Or, here are some of my favorite posts from the last few years, which are at least 45-60% coherent: 

“Enough: Or, why we should all be laughing hysterically in the magazine aisle” 

God Can’t Be Kept Out”

“All right, then, I’ll go to hell” 

“The Scandal of the Evangelical Heart”

“How to Watch an Entire Season of The Bachelor and Still Be Too Good For It”

“Holy Week for Doubters”

“Confessions of an Accidental Feminist”

“Ashamed”

 “They Were Right (And Wrong) About the Slippery Slope”

“Blessed Are the Uncool”

“Why I don’t witness to people on airplanes”

“I Love the Bible”

Mutuality 2012

Women of the Passion Series 

Loving the Bible for What It Is, Not What We Want it to Be - Bible Series 

“10 Cool Things We’ve Done in 1,000 Posts”

You can also check out our most popular posts (which I recently updated), our Ask a…” interview series (which includes everything from “Ask a Stay-at-Home-Dad” to “Ask a Pentecostal” to “Ask Jennifer Knapp” to “Ask N.T. Wright”) or our Women of Valor guest post series. 

As always, I am grateful beyond words for your readership, insights, and the amazing conversations we have here. Thanks for allowing me to be a small part of your lives. 

 

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