In the beginning...

Welcome to my humble little blog.

I'm very glad you've stumbled in here and hope this will be a place you'll return to on a regular basis. My intentions are to provide uniquely entertaining and helpful content especially for people who are struggling with minor issues like surviving life, the universe, and everything without committing some version of 'cide' (sui, homo, geno, etc.).

Okay, now that the preamble is out of the way, let's get to the big question that my blogger senses are telling me is currently on your mind:

"Why am I here?"

It's a great question and I'm glad we are already at this point in our relationship that you feel comfortable asking hard-hitting questions like this. The answer is going to take some time (and more than a few blog posts) to develop but I'll try to nutshell why yet another blog has been introduced into the over-crowded blog-o-sphere.

The earth was blessed (or cursed, depending upon who you are talking to) with my presence on August 18, 1969. For those of you who are numerically challenged (like myself), I will be 50-years-old in eight months, as of this writing. This is a personal aging milestone that, frankly, I did not believe I would ever see for the following reasons:

1. I totally believed my father was going to make good on his threats during my childhood and terminate my life before I graduated high school.

2. I firmly believed God would strike me dead on any number of occasions because of... well, we'll get into all of that later. Just believe me when I tell you I've given God plenty of reasons and opportunities to break me off like a Kit-Kat™ bar.

3. For the bulk of my adult life, I have struggled and nearly succumbed to the effects and consequences of debilitating anger, life-destroying bitterness, and crippling depression. I've experienced hell on earth and lived to tell the tale. I spent decades in the "Pit of Despair" and barely survived the experience.

But I did survive. Actually, I did more than survive. I've experienced a freedom that I honestly did not think was possible. I am a middle-aged emotional, mental, and (yes) spiritual freedom fighter with a sincere passion to help as many people as I can escape from the hell we create with our own minds.

At the risk of sounding arrogant or self-important, I'd like you to consider this blog a travelogue of sorts from a 50-year-old man who has been (and still is) on an extraordinary journey. My hope is to bring hope and healing to the hurting and dying in as informative and entertaining manner as I am capable of.

But, before we go any further, I've got a couple of disclaimers:

DISCLAIMER #1: I am a flawed follower of Jesus Christ. Consequently, this blog is going to have a specific flavor and tone that leans heavily on a Biblical foundation. That's right! I've created a blog just so I can write about Christian themes and Biblical concepts whilst living in 21st century America.*

But be warned, this isn't your grandfather's Bible Based Blog™. Traditional Biblical beliefs will be challenged here. Questions will be asked that will threaten religious comfort zones. Concepts will be explored that has the potential to be offensive to rigid thinking and weak minds. Thank God those descriptives aren't applicable to you so you should be just fine.

Also, if you're not a fan of the Bible or anyone who reads it, you are invited to stick around anyway. You might be surprised by what is on tap.

DISCLAIMER #2: I love truth; unvarnished, unedited, unpasteurized truth. I especially love the kind of truth that promotes personal growth and positive emotional, mental, and spiritual development. The problem with speaking truth to people is, some truth is painful to hear. A lot of truth actually hurts and a rather large percentage of the global population are not fans of hearing truth about themselves, regardless of the intention of the truth-sayer. In fact, there is a surplus of graves all over the Earth that are filled with the bones of people who spoke truth to an audience who did not want to hear it.

The grave of one executed truth-sayer in particular is empty, however. That empty grave is the game-changing truth that a LOT of people really don't want to hear. But, it is this singular bit of truth that has the power to bring total freedom to anyone with "ears to hear" it.

So, be warned. There be painful truths ahead. There be awesome, positive life-changing truths ahead as well. So, journey onward, if you dare!

Still here?

Awesome! Then I'm going to assume you're a bird with my kind of feathers or I've written something in the few minutes we've been together that has sparked some level of curiosity in you. Either way, I want to, once again, welcome you to this blog by quoting a verse of scripture and asking a question for you to ponder until we meet again. First, the scripture:

"The the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." - Genesis 2:15-17 (NKJV)

Here's the question:

According to the Biblical record, all of humanity's suffering, pain, sorrow, and death can be traced back to Adam, Eve, and this 'Tree of Knowledge' rule. Also according to the Bible, God is all-knowing (omniscient), which means he knew Adam and Eve would eat the 'forbidden fruit' and set this entire sin-cursed existence into motion before he even got started on his creation plans.

So, if God knew all of this ahead of time, why plant that tree on this planet?

This was the question that started me on my journey with God. By the time I found the answer, I was introduced to a God that I never knew existed. If you will permit me, I'd like to explore the answer to this and all the other questions that come afterwards with you. 

So, DON'T touch that dial, true believers. I promise, there will be much more to come...

*Clutching pearls and fainting couches not included.