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.