Every few months I get it in my mind that I should write more. It's always true, and I'm always undisciplined so I don't. Maybe the theme of 2015 will be discipline. I recently completed a 40 Day fast and frankly I was amazed that I could do something like that. It's not that it was so great an accomplishment in the scope of human history, but discipline has always been my worst thing. I was the kind of kid that ate their entire bag of Halloween candy Halloween night. I'm still that kid now.
I think one of the hard things about "first posts" is that I always feel some sort of need to explain who and what I am and that's overwhelming because... well, I'm eccentric and I kind of do a lot of things. I'm currently 32 years old, unmarried and childless. And yet, my life is full of kids. I'm not technically a youth pastor, but my house is generally filled with kids from my church who look at me that way. And I love that.
I'm also a social worker. I have a job doing case work with a foster care agency. Sometimes I love that and other times I hate it. I see a lot of abuse and neglect and the worst sides of humanity. And naturally, I also see the helpers... the people who give of themselves and make real sacrifices to help a strange child just because they need it. The part of my job that sees trouble kids succeed, I love. I also do early intervention with a friend's son who has autism. And I love that too, because there's nothing quite as much fun as seeing the light of a new discovery cross a child's face. I'm a substitute teacher, when I find the time. And I love that. I love being around kids. I love all of the energy and the optimism and the untapped potential.
I'm a seminarian at the Methodist Theological School in Ohio. And sometimes I love that. I love learning new things. I love being challenged. But I don't love that I never seem to have the time to give it everything I have. Sometimes I suspect that I could be pretty good at school if I gave it 100% of my time and attention. But I love the other things too much. I'm just doing my best to balance it all out.
So I don't know what this will look like. But I'm going to give it a go. I'm going to try write often. If not every day, then every few days, or at least every week.