Every Good Friday, and actually on all my dark days, my favorite words of Pope John Paul II always come to mind. Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song. More simply, sometimes our Sunday is just 48 hours away.
Promise in Lenten Ashes
I know today’s ashes are about reflection and repentance, but I have been weary in these recent days and working hard to shift my focus back to my word for 2021: promise. Every promise spoken over me. Every promise spoken into my heart. All of God’s promises. Promises that I am certain will come to…
Embers of Hope
And we still don’t know, just as I suspected. And yet just as I dreaded. We may not know the outcome of the presidential election for quite some time, but we do know this: many of our neighbors and friends that we have categorized as good people because they are nice to us have in…
Old Testament Lessons
I recently watched Unorthodox on Netflix and am fascinated by some of the Jewish traditions shown in it. As I’ve been reading up on a couple, I realized that Passover begins tonight - in the middle of the Christian Holy Week. I’m not Jewish and I’ve not draped it correctly, but my heart is in…
Corona and Communion
Everything is different, and yet everything is the same. The most important people are still the most important people. The most important things are still the most important things. And yet, everything seems different somehow. I guess it’s not actually that things are different so much as that things have been even more revealed. What…
Behavior and Faith
There’s a word for someone who claims to be a Christian but who hurts others on purpose and then acts like things will be ok. There’s a word for someone who claims to be a Christian but who hurts others and then says they are praying for them. There’s a word for someone who claims…
Here’s Your Proof, Brave Girl
Yesterday, I signed the name Beth Ranee Dembitz for the last time. And I had this crazy thought that the person with that name is a stranger to me. I am no longer her. She is no longer me. I've spent a lot of time in the last year thinking about the fact that the…
Go Into The Light, Brave One
I think I have seen every episode of Friends at least a couple times. Some of them I’ve probably seen a dozen times - I especially love the Thanksgiving episodes and the ones from the season where the main characters have switched apartments. One of my favorite Phoebe moments is in an early episode and…
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