Welcome

A brief statement of purpose and a bit about the author

The creation of this blog involved several fits and starts owing entirely to my despondency over the genre and the medium. Two questions dogged me along the way. First, do we need another blog? No. Second, do we need a blog from me? No. Much of what I think is the fruit of the traditions of thought into which wiser teachers invited me. Further, much of what I think tends not to answer (at least immediately) the questions people are insistent to ask and have answered. So, novelty and relevance are off the table, as well. And yet, what at first was a comfortable rationale for abandoning the effort became, over time, an odd spur to persevere in it. We do not need another blog; we do not need a blog from me. With those answered questions comes a kind of freedom. I am free to write (but I do not have to), and you are free to read (but you do not have to).

A bit about the limits of my perspective. I am a native Texan who grew up in California by way of New Mexico. The culture of my household was that of former dust-bowl midwesterners who moved southwest to find jobs in the military industries of the desert. Just beyond them, we find first-generation immigrants from Ireland on one side and Germany on the other. The branches of my family tree were always moving in the breezes of opportunity and the gales of necessity. To date, I have moved nineteen times, attended twelve schools, worshipped in six different Christian traditions, and lost all my possessions on three occasions. And while it is certain that this range of environments has provided complexity and nuance to experience, it also distilled a longing for permanence that has shaped my adult life.

I have been a Christian for thirty-one years and have come to understand life through the Gospels’ accounts of life and salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. Given the fluctuations of location, community, and relative prosperity growing up, Christ became for me, as He is for all things, the One in whom all things hold together—the golden thread of meaning. I have studied the teachings and world pictures of other major religions as well (both independently and formally), and have in different seasons appreciated their contributions to the understanding of a basic religiousness in human nature. Even so, I am persuaded of the historical factuality, metaphysical realism, sacramental catholicity, charismatic vitality, and evangelistic mission of the Church where the only and true God, the Holy Trinity, can be fully and rightly known and worshiped.

I am married and the father of two living children, with one awaiting our meeting in heaven (Lord willing). I am a homeschool dad, a lifelong martial artist, an amateur baker and home cook, and the owner of an embarrassingly large collection of Star Wars novels. Thus far, I have spent my professional life in Education and the Church. After graduating from college at the height of the mid-2000s Recession and crafting (like most) a mosaic of partial employment and gig labor, I spent over a decade in secondary and post-secondary education as a Literature teacher while discerning a call to pastoral work in the Anglican Church. I have worked in the Church for the last fourteen years, eleven of which have been in ordained ministry, and that is now my primary full-time work. As the son of an entrepreneur and a man who knows recessions, though, you’ll often find me curious about the occasional side project.

This blog will feature meditations on the spiritual life. As Fr. Martin Thornton notes, the spiritual life is all of life as it is experienced by the Christian. For sure, there are doctrinal, liturgical, and pastoral observations ahead, but much more (I hope), there are attempts to see how Christ is holding all things together, because He has held and holds me together. My goal here is to show how I have known Christ in diverse seasons and places. And since I am not uncommon, my hope is that you may come to see how He may be known by you as well.

Thank you for visiting, and may God bless you with His grace and peace.