Something About Jesus

<p><strong style=color: rgba(000var(--O42jJQ1))>Tori Beck grew up thinking that God was always on the verge of hating her.</strong></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(000var(--O42jJQ1))>God didn't seem like a being she </span><em style=color: rgba(000var(--O42jJQ1))>wanted </em><span style=color: rgba(000var(--O42jJQ1))>to like but she also didn't want to be on his bad side. As a result she did everything in her power to please him. As she grew up and listened to the stories of others - through jail ministry walking alongside friends struggling with addiction suicidal ideation and self-harm working on a Native American reservation traveling abroad and all of the things she learned through college and grad school - her experience became increasingly incongruent with what she </span><em style=color: rgba(000var(--O42jJQ1))>thought</em><span style=color: rgba(000var(--O42jJQ1))> she believed.</span></p><p></p><p><strong style=color: rgba(000var(--O42jJQ1))>This incongruence built up for many years until she couldn't take it anymore: She pulled one block from her carefully constructed tower of theology and it toppled without hesitation.</strong></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(000var(--O42jJQ1))>Tori's remaining pieces of faith seemed hopeless so she thought about walking away completely. </span><em style=color: rgba(000var(--O42jJQ1))>Why bother when it seemed like there was nothing redeemable left in Christianity? What was the point when she had become such a </em><strong style=color: rgba(000var(--O42jJQ1))><em>problem</em></strong><em style=color: rgba(000var(--O42jJQ1))> in her faith circles?</em></p><p></p><p><strong style=color: rgba(000var(--O42jJQ1))>But she couldn't shake what she was beginning to learn about Jesus now with fresh eyes; she couldn't help but take another look.</strong></p><p></p><p><em style=color: rgba(000var(--O42jJQ1))>Something About Jesus</em><span style=color: rgba(000var(--O42jJQ1))> is a memoir about her process of deconstruction searching questioning raging and getting to know the Jesus that was there all along while being pushed out of church spaces for straying.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(000var(--O42jJQ1))>The process of her deconstruction was long winding and at times excruciating. But another reality competes for prominence in this story: </span><strong style=color: rgba(000var(--O42jJQ1))>it was all worth it</strong><span style=color: rgba(000var(--O42jJQ1))>. The freedom and peace she found on this side of deconstruction is unmatched. </span><strong style=color: rgba(000var(--O42jJQ1))>Best of all she has finally come to know the Jesus who was hidden from her for so long.</strong></p>