The Reality of Lent, #ParklandShooting By Beth Demme On Ash Wednesday 2018, fourteen teenagers and three coaches were savagely murdered in a shooting spree at Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. We, as a country, have a routine after a massacre like this. It’s a routine I don’t much care for. We break into sides, camps, parties, teams, tribes, or …
The Problem With Loving God
The Problem With Loving God By Beth Demme In the Gospel of Matthew, a lawyer (one of my people!) asks Jesus “which commandment is the greatest?” Jesus responds: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment.” (Matthew 22:34-38) Did you …
Resurrection is Everywhere
Why I Need Resurrection By Beth Demme On a recent Spiritual Retreat, I was walking through the forest and I was struck by how resurrection was everywhere. I associate resurrection with Springtime, but it’s only the end of summer now, just about to edge into fall. Everywhere I looked I saw new life growing out of the old. I saw …
Do You See Yourself Clearly?
I just celebrated the third anniversary of this blog! Woo hoo! Let’s eat cake! In honor of this “birthday” of sorts, here is a post from way, way back in the beginning (April 2014). As it happens, I needed to hear this today. Maybe you do too? Do You See Yourself Clearly? By Beth Demme Do you ever look in the …
The Birth Of Jesus Is The Death Of Self-Sufficiency
The Birth of Jesus is the Death of Self-Sufficiency By Beth Demme In 1944, a German Catholic priest named Alfred Delp spent his final Advent in a Nazi prison. A few weeks before he was hanged, Father Delp described the Virgin Mary as “the most comforting of all the Advent figures.” He wrote: Advent is the promise denoting the new …
Why I Like to Make Fun of Christians
By Beth Demme I recently had this conversation with a friend: “I’m not on Twitter. I don’t even know what I would use it for,” my friend said. “Oooooh!” I jumped in excitedly. “I use it, mainly, to make fun of Christians.” “But, aren’t you a Christian?” she asked. “Yes! And there is soooooooo much to work with!” I replied. …
Make Fear Disappear One Click At A Time
How I’m Making Fear Disappear One Click At A Time By Beth Demme I recently remarked to a friend that I am coming up on my 2-year blog-a-versary. “Wow, that’s great. What have you learned so far?” she asked. It was an innocent, but paralyzing question. I tried to play it off with a silly answer, “I’ve learned that blog …
The Hardest Lesson in Parenting is Perseverance
By Beth Demme Lean in close, I have a secret to tell you. I love football. It’s a secret because for twenty years I’ve made my husband think it was his idea to turn on the game. I’ve made it seem like I was doing him a favor by watching the game with him. For the first few years of …
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The Power of Vulnerability
Vulnerability is scary. If you know about my worst mistakes (and the shame I feel about them) there’s a chance you will choose to reject me or even mistreat me. Even though I know that everyone makes mistakes, I still wonder if my mistakes are worse and my shame is deeper. It’s as if somewhere along the way to trapping our …
I Hope You Never Find Contentment
For a long time, I believed I was supposed to be content. I thought contentment meant maturing beyond my consumerism, greed, gluttony, and selfishness. I thought contentment was the natural outpouring of gratitude and the embodiment of joy. Contentment was so important to me, I tried to talk myself into it. I would mentally list all the amazingly wonderful parts …