My Facebook face

I hope I don't give people the wrong impression of me online. I don't think I'm Captain Spiritual. I'm not the wise old man. I don't know all the answers. I don't have any more of a connection to God than the next believer.

I love God because He first loved me. And He doesn't love me because I'm a good guy but in spite of me not being one.

I am not better than anyone else. In fact I'm likely worse than you in many areas. (And vice versa, I'm sure. We're all experts at some bad things, aren't we?)

I pray for people not because I'm a saint but just because I love them. It boils down to, "Daddy, sister is sad. Help her feel better." I'm not very good at praying and the way I do it is pretty odd but it's the only way I've come up with that I will do with anything resembling consistency. So I just do it that way.

My life is not all pretty pictures. I love beauty in nature, art, and in people because I live in a frequently messy world and a permanently messy life. Beauty is a marker of truth and order in the chaos, a post card from the Kingdom we know is here but is not yet visible. So I try to appreciate it at every opportunity.

My life is not all pithy sayings. I write down and post profound ideas when they occur to me because - frankly - I can be pretty shallow and these ideas are like a floodgate being opened into my little creek. When deep truth flashes for someone else, I appreciate it when they point it out to me. I just try to return the favor when I see it myself.

I'm not the greatest husband by any stretch. I just make do and make up and try again. When people ask me how we've stayed together so long, I just say, "Because we choose to. Every day." In every choice you make, you're moving closer or farther apart. Just choose closer more often than farther.

You're probably sick of hearing me say it but I am moved almost to tears every day these days by how many wonderful people I have in my life. Some people I've had to steer clear of because I'd have cried if I saw them that day. I often see myself as a weird and inscrutable nuisance. I will never deserve them but there they are! They love me anyway.

As one of them has said to me, "I am blessed and I'm forgiven. That's all I can say." We have nothing to do with either blessings or forgiveness except to accept them and cherish them.