Beth’s Story
Beth Fisher has always loved to read and write. But it took her over four decades to understand what she calls, “the real story.”
Beth grew up in a very small town in northeast Ohio. The older of two girls, she went to school at age four, started working at age fourteen, and played sports year-round. “I never sat still,” she said. “I still don’t. Except today I do things for different reasons.”
For the first thirty years of her life, Beth was Catholic. Those roots ran deep within her family, tracing back to at least seven or eight generations.
When she was twenty-five and in the middle of a divorce, Beth was diagnosed with leukemia and told she wasn’t going to live. Her only daughter was eighteen-months old. “I thought God gave me cancer as punishment for getting divorced,” she said. “That’s what I learned about God growing up—that He was always mad at me for making bad decisions.”
Today, Beth shares with everyone she encounters how grateful she is for not only being alive, but for finally understanding that was never the real story. Beth began her corporate sales career in 1995, and was with the same company out of Fort Wayne, Indiana since 1997. She moved to Grand Rapids in January 2017—four months after getting re-married. I told my husband, “I will move there as long as there is a place I can volunteer to help people understand that they are unconditionally loved by God—regardless of how others may label them, and no matter what they may have done ‘wrong’.”
Beth started volunteering at Mel Trotter Ministries in early 2017. Having never read the Bible the first three decades of her life, she was unaware that Scripture was in fact, a story.
“Once I was taught the Bible is a living, breathing narrative of which, we are all a part, I could not stop learning and teaching!” She went back to school and earned two master’s degrees in Theology, and at one point, even enrolled in seminary. “I could not stop feeling this urge coming from somewhere deep inside me, telling me to go out and tell the story…about how I finally came to understand the real story.”
When Beth shared her journey with Reverend Leonard McElveen, he asked her to join the Spiritual Life Formation Group at Mel Trotter, and she began teaching weekly devotions to the guests. “Every single one of us has the same story, we’re just at different chapters in the book. Sometimes, we just need someone to encourage us to keep reading—especially when the plotline seems unfair and unbearable,” she said.
“I am unbelievably grateful God continues to guide and encourage each of us to walk faithfully, sometimes even fearfully, as we venture into great unknowns—together.”
“God gave each of us a gift we will never be able to repay when He sent Jesus into the world. I am unbelievably grateful He also continues to guide and encourage each of us to walk faithfully, sometimes even fearfully, as we venture into great unknowns—together.”
Throughout her twenty-five year sales career, Beth spent countless hours volunteering at a local women’s prison ministry teaching bible classes. She also taught at local churches and inside her home, but it wasn’t until she realized that God had been preparing her all along that she finally took the leap and left the corporate world. A position at Mel Trotter “just happened to open up when I wasn’t even looking,” she said, smiling a knowing smile. “God walked alongside me every bumpy step of the way to bring me where I am supposed to be. Everyone deserves to know exactly what kind of lifelong, borderless travel companion He is.”
Remorseless
Today, Beth serves as the Vice President of Advancement for Mel Trotter Ministries. She continues to be passionate about helping others understand the real narrative of human sameness and unconditional love. To that end, she recently wrote her first book, Remorseless: Learning to Lose Labels, Expectations, and Assumptions—Without Losing Yourself (Brookstone Publishing) where she shares more about the universal journey with God.
Remorseless will be available at any of your favorite book retailers including Baker Book House, Amazon, or signed copies through her website: www.bethfisher.com beginning March 3rd.
