{"id":3429,"date":"2013-08-30T10:58:44","date_gmt":"2013-08-30T16:58:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/takeandread\/?p=3429"},"modified":"2013-08-30T11:02:40","modified_gmt":"2013-08-30T17:02:40","slug":"rock-bottom-blessings-a-qa-with-author-karen-beattie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/takeandread\/2013\/08\/rock-bottom-blessings-a-qa-with-author-karen-beattie\/","title":{"rendered":"Rock-Bottom Blessings: A Q&A with Author Karen Beattie"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>In the new book Rock-Bottom Blessings: Discovering God\u2019s Abundance When All Seems Lost<\/em><\/a>, Karen Beattie faces serious challenges: she loses her job, experiences a miscarriage, and encounters heart-wrenching difficulties in adopting a child. Her faith journey through her grief, loss and disappointment is at the heart of her book, now featured at the Patheos Book Club.<\/a><\/p>\n

We had a chance to ask Beattie a few questions about her story, including what inspired her to write her book, her thoughts on \u201cabundance,\u201d and her conversion in her late 40s to Catholicism.<\/p>\n

This is an honest and very personal book. What inspired you to share your story in\u00a0Rock-Bottom Blessings<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In 2009 I was laid off from my job, my husband was in school to change careers, and because of our lack of money, we had to put a long-awaited adoption on hold. I originally wrote the book to work out my own feelings and thoughts about what was going on. I was a good Christian \u2013 doing all of the right things. So why wasn\u2019t God \u201cblessing\u201d me? I had picked up all of these ideas about God that were so wrong.<\/p>\n

The author Parker Palmer once said \u201cI write because I was born baffled.\u201d I was born baffled, too.\u00a0 And writing helps me to understand. Another way to say it, and this I learned from a writing professor, is that \u201cWe write to find out what we know.\u201d I was hoping that by working through all of these questions for myself, I would I some way help other people who were struggling with the same questions.<\/p>\n

Much of your faith struggle in Rock-Bottom Blessings<\/em> centers around money, or the lack there-of.\u00a0 How would you describe your particular journey with money \u2014 where it began and where it is now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s a complicated question. I\u2019m still trying to figure it out. In our society, money is not something like to talk about. Discussing our personal finances is a bit of a taboo. And one of the reasons I wrote this book was to bring the topic to the light and start a conversation about how our idea of abundance often has to do with our view of money.<\/p>\n

Money affects every part of our lives \u2013 our relationships, our freedom, our security, whether we decide to have children or not. I grew up in a fairly upper middle class home, but there was a lot of anxiety about money. My father was a great provider, but I know he worried about supporting us. My mother used shopping as a way to cope with the stress of raising five children, which I totally understand. But there were a lot of mixed messages.<\/p>\n

On top of that, our society tells us that if we just work hard enough and \u201cpull ourselves up by out bootstraps,\u201d we can be financially successful. And our churches \u2013 even if they are not prosperity gospel churches per se \u2013 imply that if we do all of the right things, God will \u201cbless us\u201d financially. I don\u2019t think those things are true.<\/p>\n

So all of these different messages have made me a little schizophrenic about money.<\/p>\n

Writing this book was one way I was trying to unravel all of these messages. My vision, and I\u2019m not sure I\u2019m quite there yet, is to have a healthy, peaceful relationship with money. I want to be grateful for what I have, trust God to provide, and also try not to equate living an abundant life with having a lot of material wealth.<\/p>\n

Yes, your book becomes more than anything a meditation on the word abundance. <\/em>What was your starting description of that word, and what has it come to mean for you now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I used to think abundance meant having a nice home, getting everything you wanted, having things go your way, enjoying financial security. Basically, being comfortable and happy and financially secure. Now I think of abundance as the transformation we experience in the midst of struggles. I think it\u2019s about embracing the chaos and losses in life \u2013 because what happens in those difficult times is often miraculous in many ways. If you believe in the paschal mystery<\/em> \u2013 the life, passion, and resurrection of Christ \u2013 then you can believe that resurrection can come even in the most difficult circumstance.\u00a0 I\u2019ve also started seeing abundance in the minutia of life, like sitting with my daughter on the deck eating popsicles in the summer, or seeing the full moon shining across Lake Michigan. My view of abundance has both expanded, and become more focused.<\/p>\n

You write of a \u201cGhost God\u201d that helped you to see your past differently, and offered hope for your current challenges.\u00a0 What is the Ghost God for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are times when you don\u2019t think God is present in your life. He is silent, and he has \u201cleft the building.\u201d During our financial crisis and my layoff, I couldn\u2019t see God anywhere. I kept thinking \u2013 if I only saw a reason why all of this was happening, then I could endure it. If I could only catch a glimpse of\u00a0 God, I would have hope. But often, when you look back on events or the timeline of your life, you realize that God really was there, but he was lurking somewhere in the background, and you couldn\u2019t see it at the time. In Flannery O\u2019Connor\u2019s novel Wise Blood<\/em>, the character Hazel Motes says that Jesus is like \u201ca ragged figure flitting from tree to tree at the back of his mind.\u201d I can relate to that.<\/p>\n

As part of your journey, you sought out a number of people of faith \u2014 a spiritual director, a financial planner at a mega-church, a Catholic priest \u2014 as well as explored a number of spiritual practices \u2014 the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, a Buddhist<\/a> practice of praying for your \u201cenemies.\u201d Who and what\u2019s been the most helpful to you in your own faith journey?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Going through the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius had a huge part in transforming my faith, and was the turning point, I think, in my acceptance and peace about my situation. I learned that St. Ignatius, hundreds of years ago, was struggling with the exact same things that I was struggling with \u2013 being drawn to material wealth, wanting the riches of world and the world\u2019s definition of success.<\/p>\n

In the First Principle and Foundation of the spiritual exercises, St. Ignatius writes, \u201cAs far as we are concerned, we should not want health more than illness, wealth more than poverty, fame more than disgrace, a long life more than a short one, and similarly for all the rest, but we should desire and choose only what helps us more towards the end for which we are created.\u201d I taped this to my bathroom mirror.<\/p>\n

Part of your particular journey was converting to Catholicism in your 40s. What was it about the Catholic faith that drew you, especially during and throughout the challenges you recount in your book?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When my husband and I first walked into Old St. Pat\u2019s in Chicago, we immediately felt like we were home. It was a bit like falling in love. I grew up in a Baptist church, which was very fundamentalist and interpreted scripture literally. Richard Rohr writes in his new book, Immortal Diamond<\/em>, \u201cLiteralism is the lowest and least level of meaning.\u201d I agree. And at some point it wasn\u2019t enough for me. In my 20s and 30s, I spent a lot of time going to various non-denominational evangelical churches. After a while, I just felt like it wasn\u2019t working any more. I needed a different language, and different rituals, to find God again.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s something to be said for beauty. When we entered Old St. Pat\u2019s for the first time, we walked into a gorgeous sanctuary that had been built by Irish immigrants in the 1850s. The stained glass\u2026the intricate Celtic-inspired designs on the walls and ceilings. I thought, \u201cThis beauty is worthy of my faith.\u201d\u00a0 I needed tangible reminders of God \u2013 beauty, art, the Sacraments, the Sign of the Cross, the icons of the saints, signposts to point me to God until I could believe again. I was drawn to the fact that Catholics are much more comfortable with mystery and metaphor.<\/p>\n

What was the hardest thing about writing this book?\u00a0 What was the easiest?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Writing has always been difficult for me. Trying to capture my feelings and thoughts on the page is excruciating. I never feel that it\u2019s good enough. It was also hard just to get it done. I was sending chapters to my editor as I was writing. My goal was to send her a chapter a month. Having that accountability was great because there were so many times I wanted to quit. I would lose momentum, or feel that I had nothing more to say. I work full-time, so sitting in front of a computer all day, and then coming home and opening the computer again to work on the book was the last thing I wanted to do. But I also knew I needed to tell my story. I was compelled to get it out and on the page.<\/p>\n

The easiest part, to be honest, was getting it published. I shopped the idea of the book around to a few people, but then I met with the wonderful folks at Loyola Press and they were so encouraging. I knew that Loyola Press was where this book belonged. It just seemed to fall into place. I know many other writers will hate me for saying that.<\/p>\n

What do you most hope people take away from Rock-Bottom Blessings<\/em>?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think many people feel like they\u2019re doing something wrong \u2013 that it\u2019s their fault if their lives aren\u2019t perfect, or they aren\u2019t succeeding, or their dreams are unfulfilled. \u201cWhat am I doing wrong?\u201d \u201cIs God punishing me?\u201d \u201cDoes God love me?\u201d I guess I want them to know that they are loved. That Ghost God is lurking behind the trees. And that resurrection can happen even in the most difficult circumstances.<\/p>\n

Visit the Patheos Book Club to read an excerpt from Rock-Bottom Blessings.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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