Beginning

    I've tried to blog several times before but I've always quit after a couple months.  I would attempt to manufacture profound thoughts and spend hours crafting the perfect posts only to be completely exhausted by the time I was done.  After trying so hard I would always be tired of the whole process in a few short weeks.  Trying was always the death of my blogs.

    Now its time to take it up again.  This time I was able to work blogging into a syllabus for an assignment to give myself a little extra incentive.  Maybe if I have to write eventually it will develop as a natural rhythm of my life.  (That's at least my hope anyway.)  This time I also plan to try much less. 

    As we were driving to church this morning I was thinking about a book I'm reading right now called Introverts in the Church.  So far I have absolutely loved the book, not because it is the most profound book I've ever read, but because I have intimately connected with it.  It's almost as if he is writing my own thoughts for me, telling my story.  I started to think about other books in the past couple of years that I've loved like Evolving in Monkey Town and Questions to all Your Answers.  I loved both of those books, again, not because they were necessarily saying something groundbreaking but because I could relate to them.  They  gave me great encouragement, showing me that I am not alone in this journey.  There are other people just like me struggling to follow Jesus as best they can.  They struggle with doubts and cliches, with personality issues and questions.  Yet they keep going and they keep sharing their journey.

    This lead me to reflect upon my own writing.  Maybe I don't have to say something profound all the time.  Maybe I should just let my thoughts flow.  Maybe I should put my story out there so perhaps someone can recognize it as their own and be encouraged just like I was with Introverts, Evolving, and Questions.  Even when I don't have the best point to make, my thoughts could be exactly what someone else needs to make it through the day.  With that in mind, I begin.