I think most people locally have no idea who I am, or what I’m about. I think it would be good to share one of my favorite verses and also share a small snapshot of my Christian testimony.
One thing have I asked of the Lord,
that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord
and to inquire in his temple.
Psalm 27:4
In 2001, I became Christian and this verse really stuck out to me.
I came from a totally pagan, nominally Buddhist background. I spent my adolescence growing up in a suburban neighborhood, and suburbia has a boring, perverse way of warping the soul.
Everyone I grew up around including my family was completely dysfunctional, ever full of strife and dischord. However, with the help of the public school system and weed I was able to address all of my internal problems (I couldn’t).
Fast forward to the evening when I heard the Gospel for the first time.
After attending an evening worship event (the youth group slang is “afterglow”), and hearing a really basic delivery of the Gospel… the Holy Spirit called me out of my darkness (Isaiah 9:2).
Literally, it felt like a cosmic hand reached down, slapped me, and said: “You are guilty, and deserve death. God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, and has redeemed you.” By “you”, I mean a very, very personal 2nd person pronoun – God was speaking at me.
Until the day I die, I’ll never be able to properly write about the deluge of paradoxical feelings that rushed into my soul… the deep grieving for Christ’s sacrifice attended with an unbounded joy intermingled in that moment and finally something like a bittersweet sense of peace enveloped me (Philippians 4:7).
That moment is forever seared into memory for me (Isaiah 6:6).
During that “honeymoon phase” of my Christian walk, I absolutely loved being inside my church’s sanctuary during off hours when no one was there. It’s funny to think now, but I’d even break into my church during the weekdays so I could play guitar, sing songs to God, and take naps in the pews when I would get sleepy (Psalm 63:6).
Church was where I knew that God dwelled, and if I could simply sit at his feet, wonder, and marvel at his ways – that was all I really cared for. Still, to this day I still don’t care about anything else insofar as it’s conducive to those ends.
Navigating the world as an adult is obviously more complicated now (end the Federal Reserve) but Psalm 27:4 has functioned as a cairn for me on my long-winded pilgrimmage, and encouraged my spirit amidst all the toils of life.
Sidenote: this website is getting a reboot (airhorn). The website will feature much of the same potpourri of topics including: devotional material, political coverage, history, and… other stuff. Thanks for reading!
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