Let me start by saying this: I am not starting this blog as an exercise in self-promotion.
Don't get me wrong, I've always enjoyed communicating for a specific audience. To me, there's hardly a better feeling in the world than crafting and conveying a message that people want and need to hear. For a mix of reasons I think I'll always need to be doing this to some extent. It's who I am.
But that is not why I'm starting this blog. As I sit and write this first post, I'm amid a rare week where there is very little that I have to do. When I head back to Bloomington next week, however, I'll pretty much jump right into a semester that will be filled with class, work, studying, meetings, social gatherings, basketball games, a spontaneous road trip or two, and trying to find time to sleep somewhere. Needless to say, I don't really have time to keep this up if I'm doing it for the sole sake of being noticed.
More than anything, I'm doing this for me. As I've gotten older, I've found that I have a high need to externally process-to somehow take what I'm learning about or wrestling with and put in into the world so I can better understand it. If you have the misfortune of being around me when I'm in one of these moods, I'll probably just talk your ear off about whatever's on my mind. Some of the time, there's nobody for me to do this with, so I've found that writing is a good second option. Writing is my way of making sense of the world to myself-and to try and get a better grasp on my own role in the world.
Up to this point, I've pretty much kept my writing to myself. From notebooks to journals to random Google docs to the notes section of my phone, I've slowly accumulated a collection of musings that have been seen by my eyes alone. I think there's value in limited doses of solitude, but even more in vulnerability and community. My guess is that I'm not the only one that thinks about the things I write about, and I figure that at least one of you will be able to relate to something I'm working through.
So beyond self-fulfillment, my other hope in starting this blog is that something that I write will help someone. Whether it's about God or politics or relationships or something entirely unrelated, I hope that one of you hears something you have been needing to hear as you browse through this. I say this knowing full well that I'm really not in much of a position to help anyone, but hoping that good comes out of it anyway.
So if you've been kind enough to read this far, welcome. Whether I talk to you every day or we haven't spoken in multiple years, I hope that something on here strikes a nerve in the best way possible. Though we may not agree on everything, I hope we can still have a productive dialogue.
I chose the title "The Best is Yet to Come" because it's a pretty good synopsis of the underlying truth in everything I write. As a Christian, I think it's essential that we believe that the best truly is yet to come in both the best and worst of times-that someday, Jesus will return to take away the worst of our brokenness and sin, and give us entrance into a kingdom that is far better than the best thing we could imagine on this side of eternity. I fail to live out this truth all too often, but rest in the promise that the one who is Faithful and True will give me enough strength to hold onto it until the end.
Whoever you are, welcome. Let's journey together.
Don't get me wrong, I've always enjoyed communicating for a specific audience. To me, there's hardly a better feeling in the world than crafting and conveying a message that people want and need to hear. For a mix of reasons I think I'll always need to be doing this to some extent. It's who I am.
But that is not why I'm starting this blog. As I sit and write this first post, I'm amid a rare week where there is very little that I have to do. When I head back to Bloomington next week, however, I'll pretty much jump right into a semester that will be filled with class, work, studying, meetings, social gatherings, basketball games, a spontaneous road trip or two, and trying to find time to sleep somewhere. Needless to say, I don't really have time to keep this up if I'm doing it for the sole sake of being noticed.
More than anything, I'm doing this for me. As I've gotten older, I've found that I have a high need to externally process-to somehow take what I'm learning about or wrestling with and put in into the world so I can better understand it. If you have the misfortune of being around me when I'm in one of these moods, I'll probably just talk your ear off about whatever's on my mind. Some of the time, there's nobody for me to do this with, so I've found that writing is a good second option. Writing is my way of making sense of the world to myself-and to try and get a better grasp on my own role in the world.
Up to this point, I've pretty much kept my writing to myself. From notebooks to journals to random Google docs to the notes section of my phone, I've slowly accumulated a collection of musings that have been seen by my eyes alone. I think there's value in limited doses of solitude, but even more in vulnerability and community. My guess is that I'm not the only one that thinks about the things I write about, and I figure that at least one of you will be able to relate to something I'm working through.
So beyond self-fulfillment, my other hope in starting this blog is that something that I write will help someone. Whether it's about God or politics or relationships or something entirely unrelated, I hope that one of you hears something you have been needing to hear as you browse through this. I say this knowing full well that I'm really not in much of a position to help anyone, but hoping that good comes out of it anyway.
So if you've been kind enough to read this far, welcome. Whether I talk to you every day or we haven't spoken in multiple years, I hope that something on here strikes a nerve in the best way possible. Though we may not agree on everything, I hope we can still have a productive dialogue.
I chose the title "The Best is Yet to Come" because it's a pretty good synopsis of the underlying truth in everything I write. As a Christian, I think it's essential that we believe that the best truly is yet to come in both the best and worst of times-that someday, Jesus will return to take away the worst of our brokenness and sin, and give us entrance into a kingdom that is far better than the best thing we could imagine on this side of eternity. I fail to live out this truth all too often, but rest in the promise that the one who is Faithful and True will give me enough strength to hold onto it until the end.
Whoever you are, welcome. Let's journey together.
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