Sunday, June 27, 2004

A sabbatical turns into a Mondical, and a Tuesdical...

Re-creation and rebirth is happening in so many areas in my life...why not here, too?

Back at Christmas-time 2003 - inspired by uber-bloggers Laura and Micah Jackson and their merry band of blog-friends - I started a blog (short for web-log) over here. Now, admittedly, I had no illusions of being either as deep or as inspiring as the Jackson Two were, by any means (I don't think my mind ever has operated at their level!). But I thought it would be fun to have a place to share my thoughts, and get people to comment on them from time to time.

There was only one real problem. I was so mentally, spiritually, and emotionally drained by events in my life during the November-January timeframe that my Christmas-time energy burnt out almost as quickly as it ignited. The flash-in-the-pan syndrome set in, and "ye olde blogge" sat unused for...well, months. Six months, in fact.

But "the times they are a-changin'," as Bob Dylan would say. For a variety of reasons, my plans for the next twelve months are radically different than they were a few short months ago, and it's taken every bit of the last 70 days or so just to put my emotional and spiritual rail-cars back on the tracks. So I'm starting my blog anew here on Blogger...as a fresh-start, but also because I like the blogging features here better.

So over the next weeks and months, I'll be discussing
- my journey of faith, and some of the struggles and sticky questions I face on that road
- my adventures in seminary education at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC), as well as life in Chicagoland (whoever thought I would end up in a place with a name like an amusement park?!?) [Note: thanks to roommate Tim for pointing that little item out!)
- my journey of recovery (from more addictions than I care to mention) and
- anything else that comes to my wee-bitty mind.
I am still very much on a voyage of discovery, so there will be many times when postings may very well seem half-baked - grammatically, theologically, you name it. That, of course, is because I am often half-baked...like a cake in the oven, sometimes I need to have others stick a toothpick in my thoughts to see if they're really done, or if they're still a bit gooey in the center.

For now, I leave this effort in God's hands, and leave you with my favorite prayer from the Lutheran Book of Worship:

Lord God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen. (LBW page 137)
Amen, indeed.

1 comment:

Steve F. said...

A member of another program based on AA's 12-step recovery process.