This is What it Means to Be Held... and to "Hold Fast"... With Grace - Amanda Held Opelt

Wendy warmly welcomes the winsome and wise Amanda Held Opelt for an honest conversation about grief, faith, and what it means to love like Jesus in a fractured world. Amanda, an author, speaker, and songwriter living just outside Boone, NC, opens up about the sudden death of her older sister, writer Rachel Held Evans, at age 37.  Wendy and Amanda  reflect on Rachel's legacy of authenticity, willingness to be honest about doubt, and gift for inviting deeper consideration of  what it means to follow Jesus in this day and age. Amanda describes how her journey of grief following her sister's death led her to explore grief rituals that different cultures have practiced for centuries. The fruit of that quest became her first book, A Hole in the World: Finding Hope in Rituals of Grief and Healing.  The conversation then turns to how to hold conviction with grace in a polarized, meme-driven culture, and exploring how humanizing the people we disagree with matters more than winning the argument.  Amanda also previews her forthcoming book, Provisions: Finding Home in the Food Folklore of the Appalachian Table (out this November), and talks about healing her relationship with food and body through Appalachian tradition, plus the baking-as-prayer retreats she co-leads with food scholar Kendall Vanderslice. Find more from Amanda on her website [https://amandaheldopelt.com/]and Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/amandaheldo...], and follow her monthly Substack [https://amandaheldopelt.substack.com/] for updates on her writing. #AmandaHeldOpelt #GriefAndHealing #RachelHeldEvans #FaithAndDoubt #ChristianDeconstruction #AHoleInTheWorld #Provisions #AppalachianCulture #EmbodiedFaith #SurvivingSaturday 00:00 Introduction and Podcast Theme 00:37 Meet the Hosts: Wendy and Chris Osborne 00:54 Living as a Christian in a Divisive World 02:03 Introduction to Amanda Held Opelt 03:39 Amanda's Writing Journey 04:43 Coping with Grief: Amanda's Personal Story 08:16 Rachel's Legacy and Influence on Faith 12:09 Navigating Societal Division 17:03 What would get us to the place where we could sit down with someone who's different and have a conversation? 29:46 Managing Emotional Triggers 33:37 Embracing Mystery in Faith 39:52 Exploring 'Provisions': Amanda's New Book 45:12 Conclusion and Nurture Counseling Services