Introducing – Rough Draft

I’ve been mulling over this opportunity for some time.  Most of my good friends have blogs.  Part of my daily surfing includes regular stops at their WordPress or Blogger sites.  I have had a desire to add my two cents on many occasions.  Potential blog posts have been written in my head many mornings (and even afternoons) in the shower.  In fact, this post has been in process for the last several mornings during bath time.  However, I have just not felt right about pursuing this venue.  I struggled with my motivations.  I felt that I simply wanted to be recognized for contributing to certain arguments or that I desired praise for pulling heart strings with my words.  I liked the idea of having my blog linked to on someone else’s facebook.  All in all, I felt I wanted to have a blog for the wrong reasons.  I also feared that blogging would cause me to waste too much time, when I often feel I don’t have enough time for what I already have to do.

But for some time, my wife and I have discussed my desire to write.  I enjoy writing.  I feel I am much better at expressing myself with a keyboard (or pen) than I am with my mouth.  I don’t “think on my feet” very well and need time to think things through.  I guess this is why I enjoyed seminary so much.  We had plenty of writing to do.  I think it was there that I discovered my desire to write.  Interacting with theological issues, historical debates, and interpretation of Scripture invigorated me.

My wife has encouraged me in this passion.  She thinks that I will one day write a book (we’ll see).  I began to rethink starting a blog, looking at it as an opportunity to hone my writing skills.  The interaction with readers and the ability to put my thoughts down will greatly help me not only to write better but also to think through issues more completely.

Therefore, I think the title, “Rough Draft,” is appropriate.  Being a perfectionist I rarely feel ready to call something “final.”  So, this blog will be made up of posts covering a variety of topics about which I am thinking, but by no means have reached conclusions.  My confidence and certainty with some issues will be evident, I imagine.  After all, I am a Christian fully persuaded in and passionate about the Gospel.  The truths of sin, wrath, substitute, resurrection, faith, forgiveness, and eternal life all explained in the One, Jesus Christ, I will affirm till death.  But many issues we face in our modern day take some working out.

My goal to start with is to write once per week.  This is manageable in my mind and will not allow me endless babbling that will negatively affect my family and do no one any good.  So once per week I will write on topics of interest to me or issues on which I desire feedback and clarification from you.  I trust that here you and I will find opportunities to hash out matters of greater or lesser importance.  From Nobel Peace Prizes to church polity, from special moments shared with my son to the Gypsies of Romania, Rough Draft will be a place to consider, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven” (Eccl 3:1).