WHY WRITE and WHEN
I have hesitated to begin writing for years in the hopes that I would get my stuff (about used another word) together. That I would be together enough, figured out enough, so you could not see me in a few years saying “that’s not what you said you believed in that blog you wrote back in 2001”. I started writing eighteen years ago. I see now that we never get it all together. But we have the promise that although God does not deliver us from ourselves and the rest of the mess that besets us, He promises that He will never leave our side. What more can we ask? Yes, I know, lots more and that is exactly what I’ve done taking my laundry list of my wants to God over the years sounding a lot like Bill Murray in the movie What About Bob? whining “I need, I need, I need!”
I’ve come to see that it’s about just showing up. Staying connected. You get points for that. Not about getting it right. Most of us can still be intimidated (or envious) of those who claim they do have it all together. Want the honest truth? They lie, to all of us and themselves.
As a counselor, I’ve found myself saying the same things repeatedly to clients. So, at the encouragement of good friends, particularly Harold Ivan Smith and Barbara Johnson (more recently my Silas Robert and then Carmen Berry), here is a blog of my thoughts over the years. Harold is still around as I edit this 2001 entry as are Robert and Carmen. Barbara has been gone now several years. She was a great help to so many by just opening her life up to others. So in an effort to do similarly, as honest and transparent as I can…here are multiple entries.
(I have left dates on my writings since I have always wished King David would have ‘carbon dated’ his Psalms so we’d know the order in which they were written. In my naivety I thought the Psalms that cried out with his troubles to God were the older ones. The Psalms of praise and wonder were the last. NOPE. They were more likely morning and afternoon of the same day. If you personally have not had days like that…you must be on something. It was great comfort to me to see that David cycled…he was not always up on the mountaintop. He’s one of the first I hope to see in the next realm—if he’s still doing book signings by then).
First writing 9/9/2001
Edit 2/27/2021