So, here we go ...
"Finding Faith ... in" is a blog for me, to be frank. Meaning that I write it for me, but my hope is that in doing something for me, I can also do something for you.
This blog is a long time in the making. In a practical sense, I started building it a year ago as a requirement for a seminary class that dealt with ministry and technology. But, in reality, this blog began many years prior.
In 2009, I was working as a city editor at a mid-sized newspaper in Fargo, N.D., and I was single-parenting my two boys, who then were 11 and 6 years old. Our newspaper launched a new weekly parenting section, and I -- along with five other parents -- were asked to contribute a parenting column once every six weeks to this new section.
That gig lasted three years, for a total of about 36 columns. And, thankfully, I've been able to retrieve those and post them here on the blog for you. You can check them out under the "Parenting Perspectives" tab on the blog.
But more importantly, I realized that I enjoyed writing about little slices of life. And so I started a blog on our company-owned blogging platform. The blog was called "Stop Looking at Your Brother ...," and it was named in honor of the silly fights that happen between siblings. I wrote almost daily on the blog for a couple of years, and surprisingly to me, its popularity grew. Some days it would receive four-digit hits. And there was one particular post that received more than 10,000 hits!
At the time, the writing was not only enjoyable, but it was cathartic as well. I was five years into a very challenging divorce, and the boys and I both struggled. But when I sat down to write each day, it was like pouring out my innermost thoughts to a trust friend. ... It's just that that friend was a blog. ;-)
Well, as you may know, writing a blog for any amount of time is a grind. ... Maybe some of you have kept a personal journal, and the grind is much the same. It takes good habits to write daily and stay dedicated to the endeavor. But after a couple of years, my passion for the blog bled out. I took a break, and soon the blog started collecting dust.
And weeks of not writing turned into months, and months turned into years. ... Oh, sure, I'd post a blog-like something to Facebook every now and again. But I had given up all of my avenues to write. And, frankly, outside of my family, there are few things I love more than writing. So just putting it on a shelf for seven or more years has been like losing an old friend.
Oh, every now and again, I would get the creative bug again. But it'd stop short of going through the work of creating my own blog site. I'd post a pithy little post on Facebook and call it good. But it all came up short of fulfilling my soul.
And so I don't take lightly the tug that pulled at me last fall when I took the ministry and technology course. It allowed me to explore some new media tools that hopefully I'll be able to put to use while working on this blog. And, while other students put the minimum effort in to create a blog to get the grade they needed to pass the class, I knew it was my opportunity to reboot.
I know in my soul that I am a writer. It's the lens through which I see the world, and how I process its many wonders, tragedies and mysteries. And so I knew this was the push I needed to get moving.
Well, life is life, and I am trying to go to seminary, lead a church and hold down a full-time job at a start-up media company. ... Oh, and yeah, be a husband, father, son, brother, uncle, friend ... etc. ... And then there was this little thing called COVID that blindsided us all.
And so, while the creation of this blog took longer than anticipated, it's never been far from my mind. And in recent weeks, there seemed to be the perfect timing to reboot in full.
You see, today I turned 46 years. An age that I really can't fathom. ... I told my daughter today that I am closer to 50 than I am 40 now. I mean, I have been for a while, but when that digit flips to a 6 it becomes very real!!!!
And that being said, I made a promise to myself that today was the day to reboot. ... My goal is to write daily, sometimes a personal reflection, sometimes a commentary on media, a lot of times on what that day is helping me to find my faith. ... But there also may be some travelogue-type pieces, as both my wife, Shelley and I like to travel. There might be a food or beer review, as we both are foodies too. ... And there just might be a book or movie review thrown in for good measure, as I love writing reviews! Always have!
So, as I sit on our fireplace patio (one of my top five favorite places in the entire world), as I said above: Here we go! ... I hope you come along on the journey with me! ... And, hey, let's create a friendship along the way! ... And finally, let's help each other keep finding our faith!!!
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