Thoughts Along the Way

Thoughts Along the Way

Welcome to my blog.

As I sit on my deck, looking at a sky full of stars, listening to the waterfall in the background and the Phillies/Braves on the net, I'm wondering what I'm getting into. I never really thought I would be doing this. Blogs always seemed to be a little pretentious. Or for those who were more tech-savvy than me. Or more poetic. Or deeper. Or funnier. Or at least thought they were those things. I just never thought of myself as a blog kind of guy.

But over the past few months, the idea has been growing on me. Hopefully it's a God-thing. And through the help of Jake, "Thoughts Along The Way" came to be. But what will it become? That is the question. And that's also where you come in. In my "vision" for this thing, I wanted an interactive forum that can keep the discussion going about God, the spiritual life, the world, and whatever else comes along. In trying to make things as complicated as possible, my blog has three parts:

1) The Blog Itself - The space where you get to "hear" me rant or ponder or think out loud. It's the place where I'll get to develop more fully things I've been thinking about or talking about. It's the place where I'll get to comment on things I see and experience. I don't think it's going to be anything "preachy" - just thinking out loud. My hope is to be able to do this two or three times a week. One of my big fears in doing this is that I won't have anything to say. But after reading a bunch of blogs, that doesn't seem to stop anyone else - so I guess I can do it too! But I'll want your comments and feedback to hone my thinking and understanding. And I want to add this disclaimer: It could be that much of what I write will be "thoughts in process" and shouldn't be taken as my final position or that of Christ on Campus or anyone else related to me!

2) Ask Mike - One of the favorite ConC traditions over the years has been our "Ask Mike Nights" where students can anonymously ask whatever questions they have and I get three minutes to answer them. We're going to continue that on here. Feel free to email me any questions you would like a response to and I'll give it a shot. But I do reserve the right not to publish every question!

3) Bible Discussion - I would like to have an ongoing, online discussion on a Biblical text. I'll pick a book, publish a section of it on the forum, and we can spend a week asking questions, sharing insights, and finding applications.

I guess I'm asking a lot of this. But I do think the title kind of catches where I want to go. We are all trying to figure out how to best live our lives in a world that is often confusing, amusing, disgusting, heartbreaking, beautiful, and more. For those of us trying to live our lives in relationship with God, the world can often be antagonistic - or at least apathetic. Along the way, we struggle with fears and questions. But it is wrestling with these tensions - our thoughts and prayers and doubts and convictions - and our interactions with God and people along the way, that shape our lives and the path we take. Hopefully, this will be a place where we can sort through some of those things.