A New Beginning

It's been over a year. How are we doing?

Last night, just before we went to sleep, I read to my husband a first draft of a future post. He said he liked it, but it was too long. I do tend to ramble. We laughed a bit over some of the points I’d made, then he said, “You should write a book sort of like My Utmost for His Highest, only you could call it, My Haphazard Attempts for His Amusement.”

Huh. Thanks, Brad.

Oswald Chambers’ classic has guided me in significant, almost eerie, ways during the first quarter of 2024. His insights have “coincidentally” echoed entirely independent insights of others, or things I had thought up all by myself. The above anecdote should in no way be construed as disrespectful; it’s simply my admission that Chambers had his act together, and I don’t. Not yet.

It’s been over a year now since I launched this presence on Substack. Today’s post is the one I haven’t written before because I didn’t know if I should, or could, or if it was necessary at all. Since it kept bugging me, I’ve decided to write it and be done with it.

Here’s my confession. This “column,” or whatever it is, won’t be very organized yet. I’m still experimenting. It’s all I can do to simply write what’s on my mind, let alone come up with themes, or strategize a coherent series that would lead you from one post to the next. I’ve decided to just show up, write, and see what happens. If I wait for “my utmost” to develop and be perfected, all you’ll see is a blank page. My remaining lifespan is too limited, and I’m having too much fun to fuss over structure right now. My hope is that by attempting, even haphazardly, to offer glimpses of wonder and truth, I’ll learn to do it better. What you’ll get going forward is a scrapbook of what I’ve been reading, thinking, encountering, grappling with, and rejoicing over.

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

That’s it. Thanks for listening.