On Starting Over

This is, as I'm sure you've become aware, the last day of 2011. This is not a trivial thing...rather, it is an opportunity to look back at where we have come from, to look forward at where we hope to go, and to consider where we are in this moment. This past year has been nothing like what I expected before the calendar turned. In the past twelve months I have graduated from college, moved to a new city, started a new job. I discovered new passions, gained and lost relationships, and tore a ligament in my knee. Even this blog has changed...I began it as a way to express myself to myself, without any intention of other people reading it. That didn't last long...in 2011, this blog was viewed more than 11,000 times by more than 8,500 different people, one of whom invited me to publish an article with his magazine.

If you had told me a year ago that I would lose my most important relationship or that I would be questioning my calling in life, I would have probably blinked twice and imagined that I would be miserable by the time 2012 rolled around. Thankfully, that isn't the case. And that's the amazing thing about life...no matter what you plan for, you'll always get something different. And even though it's different, it's still good. Maybe even better. I may not have found my soulmate or my dream job in the last year, but I've found new friendships and gained a new home. I have much to learn, but I've learned more than I could have ever imagined in the last year.

A Blessing Machine

In my last post, I mentioned the idea that truth is truth regardless of who says it and why, an idea which is quite powerful and carries some significant implications for how I approach the world. This relates quite strongly to another characteristic of truth which I rediscovered tonight: when you stumble upon truth, whether by design or by accident, it will punch you in the face. By this I mean that when you happen upon truth, you won't be able to miss it or ignore it. Truth has this funny habit of making itself known.

One of the topics I've written on again and again in this space is my consistent frustration with what the word Christianity means in the 21st Century, and with what church has become in this era. I'm sure you've read and heard and witnessed many of the same things that I have...churches condemning the entirety of the gay community in a debate over what the word marriage means, religious leaders acting as though Jesus wants us to vote for one political party over another, and so on. I don't want to bore you with examples. Available by request, I'll say.

A Religion for Losers

I don't often write in this space about God or my faith, at least in a personal way. Not because I am ashamed of it or it doesn't exist, though you might not be able to tell from my recurring criticisms of religion and church and so on. Rather, I choose not to write about the personal aspects of my faith because I know there are many other voices with more and better things to say about who God is and what it means to follow Jesus. That isn't what I'm here to do. I don't want to muddle the conversation by entering it as if I were some kind of expert, when admittedly I am not. All that being said, something came up at my church on Sunday which I feel the need to dive into a little bit.