I have
been doing a lot of reading and receiving of information as of late. I have
always loved to read, but God has been leading me down some interesting paths
of reading lately. I have been confused though because I am one who likes to
know that everything I am reading and doing is coming into a coherent pattern
or way of belief. I am okay with reading in a scatter-shot manner if God wishes
me to, but only if I get to define what that will mean. I know it is backwards;
but there it is.
As I
continue down this journey of reading and following the rabbit trail that is
before me, I feel as if God is preparing me to enter into the blogging
community in a more intentional manner. Many of you know my former blog and
what I once wrote. It was very formative for me spiritually, and for making me
a writer. However, having gone back to graduate school and facing a personal
spiritual journey that has taken me down some steep terrain knocked the wind
out of the sails and I just have not gotten back to what I was doing. My ship
now has a deeper rudder, the draft is shallow and the wind is picking up.
The thing
about my kind of writer’s life that is so maddening, yet engaging, is that
nothing really is off limits for observation. I remember angry e-mails from
readers telling me to “focus your thoughts” and “I cannot follow you because I cannot
figure out your mind”. I am a philosopher, theologian, teacher, preacher and
all around provocateur, and I intend to keep it that way. In this I may have
more of a journalistic mind, but I do not want to write what is necessarily
popular, or even right. My desire is to provoke thought, engage with that
thought, and bring it out into the world and see how it plays out. I want to
live in the tension of this life, this modern, post-modern, crazy-ass life. It
will surely have the up’s and the downs, it will surely be boring, and once in a
while fascinating. If it brings transformation, I have reached what I hope to
do.
My hope
in all of this is to bring coherence to my worldview, and hopefully be able to
bring you along in that quest. I will try to post a few times a week. It may be
simple links to good writing I have found, or it may be something more deep and
personal. What it will be is a journey, and often times it is the journey that
tells us the most about the destination we seek. Once we land at the location
we seek we will hopefully be wiser and stronger than we were before. So let us
begin as all good stories do. Once upon a time…
