Ugh… Not Another Christian Blog

“Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.” ~ James 3:1, English Standard Version

It’s weird. For as much as our society tries to bury God, saying that God has been disproven over and over by science and the like, don’t you feel like our hearts don’t match our mouths?

What I’m saying is that there is a desire for higher meaning deep down in our souls despite media telling us otherwise. Are we really okay with the notion that God doesn’t exist? Do we truly believe “living your truth” is the best way of approaching our life choices?

I don’t think so.

I think there is a desire… no, an aching… for a higher truth beyond ourselves. That ache is a pain in our heart that we desperately look to fill with something, only to find that “something” lacking at the end of the day.

So we tend to bury those thoughts. We throw ourselves into this activity or that group of friends to keep up this illusion that, “We’re happy! We’re okay!”

Nah.

We’re not.

At least, I’m not. Both intentionally and unintentionally, I’ve sought things and people to bring meaning to my own life, only to find my heart once again aching for this higher sense of meaning.

So hey, let’s go to church, right?

Well… yeah… about that…

Most of us are totally turned off by the idea of church. Some might even use the word repulsed.

What do you think about when you think about church? The smiling televangelist spouting off prosperity theology to sling another book? The angry protesters holding signs that say “Gay? No way!”? The campy pastor opening another sermon with a weird story he clearly Googled from two nights ago?

The point is, the church is failing a lot of us.

Don’t get me wrong, they do a lot of stuff right. We’ll talk about those good things and not-so-good things in later posts. But at the heart of the matter, we generally have a distrust in the church.

Why another Christian blog, then?

Like you, friend, I’m on this same spiritual journey to constantly understand more and more about God. While I do attend church, I want a faith that extends beyond the walls of that building I go to every Sunday.

I want to hear it all:

The good,

the bad,

and the ugly.

And I want to share it with you.

So let me lay my cards out on the table because I feel like you have to know the spirit in which I’m coming from. I do believe God / Jesus / the Holy Spirit exists, and I do believe he is the authority over our lives.

And that’ll probably be the only thing you’ll see me totally firm on. Everything else I hold in an open hand. Yes, I do have additional beliefs, but I hold those lightly in an open hand, willing to question them if necessary.

That’s also why I begin this post with that passage in James 3:1. I take very seriously this concept about not trying to lead somebody astray, so where I share things that might seem heretical at times, know that I hold these things lightly with the primary intention of helping you grow further in your faith journey.

For me, nothing is off the table. Over the course of this blog, we’ll be taking a look at a ton of different subjects from the perspectives of a ton of different people. Some of those people include…

• Rob Bell
• Mark Driscoll
• Richard Rohr
• Rachel Held Evans
• Judah Smith
• Timothy Keller
• Abraham Joshua Heschel

Those first two names listed should already tell you that we’re running the full gamut. As much as I personally appreciate the perspectives of those two men are as far as the east is from the west. But hey, I’ve found a lot of value in them, so I hope you do, too.

I don’t know about you, but I’m really excited for what is to come. I’m excited because I get to grow alongside you. For as much as I have learned about God in during my 28 years of life, I have also learned how much I don’t know about God.

But there’s a lot of great stuff out there. Lots of great thoughts from lots of great people. I can’t wait for my own faith to grow exponentially the more I learn. (Hence the title for this blog!)

Looking forward to growing alongside you,

~ David