Friends,
I hope you are feeling hopeful as we head into this new year. Reality calls for tempered hope, but hope nonetheless.
My husband Ken and I were in bed by 10 last night. Today I have three different gatherings to play strategy games with friends. And some time to shop another friend's stash of batik's.
While January 1 is the start, it is a slow start. A holiday start. Retail of course is always working. And plow drivers are clearing up the overnight slow. Technically I'm back to work tomorrow, but my schedule is Friday's off. So I'll ease back into the working world next Monday.
I hope your New Year is fine.
-Liz
I wrote a book!
In what can only be described as shocking news, I've written another book. It's release date is today!
When I was going from elementary school to junior high I was recommended for honors in all subjects except science. I credit that to an argument with a my teacher about how phones work--I insisted the picture in our text book was wrong. (I still believe I was write, but who knows?)
I followed up that experience by winning first place at the science fair when I was in eighth grade. I was who my friends called for help with Chemistry homework, I went off to become a college Chemistry major. What you do today doesn't necessarily predict your future.
In high school I applied for honors English, but didn't get in.
And I lived a great deal of my life believing that that I "can't write". I only took college courses that didn't require extensive writing (there are lots of them in math and science departments.) I didn't write much at work or for fun. I didn't keep a journal, I didn't write many letters. (Remember when we communicated by writing letters?) I used too many parenthetical sentences and phrases.
I went to seminary and immediately signed up for the "how to write" seminar because I was sure that I didn't know how to write. What I hadn't noticed is that computers had been developed in the meantime.
It turns out I literally cannot write. That is, put a pen or pencil onto paper. It stops me in my tracks. It is a barrier I do not have the strength to overcome. But I write fine when I have a keyboard, on the spot editing, the ability to move paragraphs without cutting up pieces of paper and scotch tape.
I was then accepted into a writing program for theologians at the Collegeville Institute. I learned to make different poetic styles of sentences. I wrote a small book with a professor. I wrote articles for congregation's magazine.
And then I needed to write a dissertation for my doctor of ministry program. I was again certain that I didn't know how to do that type of writing. And honestly I didn't. I had to learn a new voice and how to make a particular type of argument. I pulled that off and was determined to rewrite that in a way that could be published.
So I took a writing course with my friend Charlene Smith (Link). She is brutal. And encouraging. And precise with language. And helps students move from telling to showing. With her help I polished a chapter one and submitted it at the Festival for Faith and Writing. There editors from many publishers read your work and decide if there is something they want.
Five Loaves, Two Fish, Twelve Volunteers came out in March 0f 2020 (thirteen days before the Covid shutdown.)
And here I am five and a half years later and When Did We See You? A Lenten Reflection on Poverty & Wealth is released. I am still shocked to discover that I am a writer.
What you do earlier, who you think you are, what you thought were your strengths, these do not determine who you are today.
John's gospel suggests that Jesus was meant to be who he was since the beginning of time, since the creation. That Jesus was there at the creation. Perhaps that is true. Perhaps that is important. But this new year, 2026, I am focused instead on the stories in Mark, where Jesus' life changes at his baptism, and in Matthew and Luke, where the world's story is changed at his birth. We were on one path, and then switched to another.
This year, I like the idea that the past does not predict the future. That whatever I have been before does not pre-determine who I will be tomorrow.
Happy New Year.
What are your church's new years traditions? Reply to this email to let me know what's happening.
In a world of both abundance and inequality, When Did We See You? guides us through a crucial and timely conversation about our money, economic justice, and God's call for a world with enough for all. This Lent, may we have eyes to truly see Christ in our neighbors, and respond with love and action.
Beth DeSombre is a storyteller in song. Here is one of her songs about change.
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