In my book Being: A Journey Toward Presence and Authenticity, I wrote the following in Introduction. Don’t Waste a Good Crisis is also the title of the first section of the book. “Part I is an accounting of probably the most significant event in my life. It wasn’t my wedding day—it wasn’t the birth of my children (although both of those are significant). It was a crisis. My friend, Dr. Paul Fitzgerald says, never waste a good crisis.” ~Karl Forehand,... Read more
In my book Being: A Journey Toward Presence and Authenticity, I wrote the following in the chapter titled, Being with the Poets and Prophets. “The Christian Scriptures were written over a period of 1600 years. It is a record of people struggling to understand God. Many of them were prophets and poets. Along with the authors of the Bible, there are probably hundreds of thousands of seekers that have written about their quest to understand God and the Universe and... Read more
I work on assembly line. There are about 40 jobs on the line that I work on. Each person does their job and are greatly encouraged to stay in their lane. Since Evangelicalism is a part of my past, I asked the team leader “Do you assign certain roles to men and certain ones to women?” She said, “No, we try to fit the person to the job.” In other words, there are no gender roles, just like there are... Read more
I always hated English class in high school. I despised learning rules about grammar and endlessly practicing those rules. I was a terrible student and did the little I had to get by. In my senior year, I had the option to take creative writing and I decided to give it a try. The good news about the class was that it let me be creative without having to worry about the rules. I loved the class but didn’t think... Read more
My mother is an incredible woman. She grew up poor with a love for music and married my dad shortly after high school. I was born shortly after that and then 4 more children were conceived in about 9 years. I remember my mother struggling to survive motherhood using the understanding she had and the determination she inherited. Many of the good things about me were at least partially inherited from my mother. We are both determined and stubborn and... Read more
(This is the introduction to my book: Being: A Journey Toward Presence and Authenticity. It releases next Monday, May 11th. I hope would give it a chance and pre-order or save it on your wish list to order on opening day.) I learned the value of hard work from my family-of-origin early in life. Doing something was a way to be affirmed and rewarded. Even before my first paying job, my brother and I discovered we could scavenge for aluminum... Read more
Today I was typing a blog and accidentally typed “questions” when I meant to type the word “quest.” That made me think about my deconstruction and how many times during this quest, I have been criticized just for asking questions. Like today, I asked whether anyone had read the book I’m reading and was criticized by a professor for asking the wrong questions or having the wrong opinions. Other times, I was more directly question doctrine and beliefs and that... Read more
As I progress in my deconstruction and the subsequent journey, it seems that language becomes especially important and, sometimes, the old vernacular doesn’t work for me anymore. I am constantly searching for new language to attach to my journey in an attempt to have a more authentic experience. For example, I now call my journey an evolution instead of a reconstruction since I don’t just want to rebuild something similar to the past—I want to evolve to something entirely new.... Read more
(This is an excerpt from my first book, Apparent Faith). I have had thick glasses since I was about five; when you have glasses like mine, it is easy to get classified as smart and/or a little crazy. Growing up I was relatively short. I am not sure why most societies honor the taller people, but I seemed to never get picked for the team—no matter what game we were playing. The fact that my family growing up was relatively... Read more
Recently I commented to a friend that I have a long history of rejection. For whatever reason, I don’t come to mind when people are thinking of people to recruit. In the workplace, I always had to beg for a chance and then work hard to prove it to them. No one has ever called me up and invited me to a baseball game or a concert or even to be part of any kind of team they are assembling. ... Read more
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