cup a joe: January 2018

It’s been quiet around here for the past couple of years. It’s hard to believe that it has been five years since my last post. The past five years have been stressful to say the least. However, there is no need to rehash the past—as someone told me earlier this morning—December is so “last year.” The same is true for life since my previous posts.

As this is the beginning of a new year, it is probably time to make some decisions about what I want to focus on from this point forward. First, I want to—no, perhaps I need to—start writing more. This may seem funny, especially due to my silence over the past five years (not just here, but most other forms of social media as well), but I really enjoy writing. The problem is that not doing it for the past five years has made me rusty. I figure the only way to overcome that is to do it. This may be painful at first (for me as the writer, and, perhaps, for you as the reader), but bear with me. In time, hopefully, it will get better. My prayer is that over the next several months, this blog will become active again. I want to start posting my thoughts like I did in the past, but I also want to try my hand at short story writing. As the header of this blog states, it will probably get messy around here.

Secondly, it’s time to get healthy again. When I say that, I don’t just mean physically. One thing that I have discovered over the past five years is a more holistic understanding of health. While physically I need to get healthier (what I eat, when I exercise, losing weight, etc.), I also need to get healthier emotionally, spiritually, and financially. All of those factors affect my well-being. I’m not sure what is required in this journey to “health”, but I’m pretty sure I will be journaling about it here.

Finally, the word for me this year is “engage.” The lack of writing on this blog has been a symptom of the disengagement that has defined my life over the past five years. Fear is a tremendous jailor. It is time to shake off the shackles of fear and re-engage in my community, as a husband, as a father, as a pastor, as a member of several boards, and as simply a human being. Once again, I’m pretty sure I will be journaling about that journey here.

As Pope Francis has said, “Life is a journey. When we stop, things don’t go right.” I guess it’s time to start the journey again.