Finding Faith ... in the words

I've been a writer from the earliest days I can remember.

In elementary school, I would write fiction stories that possibly may or may not have "mirrored" a lot of the books that I read. But, at least, the names of the characters and the geographic settings were a lot more familiar to northwestern Minnesotans, than the original books!

But it was writing nonetheless.

I wrote again in high school, and drifted toward the humanities as they helped me understand the world better, giving me a prism to understand the many things for which I couldn't find answers.

Again, in college, I drifted to the humanities, mostly literature, until one day in my sophomore year, my college buddy said, "You're a good writer. ... Come take this class with me." ... It was "Introduction to Mass Media." And the rest is history. From that moment I knew that I would make my living in words somehow.

And it's been a good 25-year run so far.

I've had the good fortune of working at a dozen or so publications all across Minnesota/North Dakota that gave me great freedom to tell stories ... and to write. But the irony about the newspaper business is that the longer you are in it, the more likely it is that you move farther and farther away from the writing as you transcend the hierarchy in search of a bigger salary. ... Until one day you find your self doing no writing at all.

That happens to almost all of us who start in the business. It's the reality that the industry figured out too late: Some of the best writers should have just been paid to be writers, and they should never have been made managers just so that they could make more money. ... But that's a post for another day.

To counter the hole in my soul that I missed from not writing, over the years I blogged on various platforms, including one in the late 2000s that was called "Stop Looking at Your Brother," which detailed my life as a single father of two boys and also gained some small regional acclaim. Sadly, that blog no longer exists as the platform it was on was destroyed. (Yeah, that wive's tale about something being on the internet existing forever seems to only hold true about those compromising college photos.)

But, after writing for a few years, the boys got older, and I reconnected with my now-wife, Shelley, and she had two young girls. And the blog wasn't conducive to the work of bonding by this fledgling family. So I shut it down.

There have been other attempts to start again. Attempts that make it a few weeks and then fizzle out for a lack of time. Because the secret most writers don't share is that it takes time. To write, you have to not do something else. And when you are a husband, father, run a small, start-up communications company, serve a church as a half-time intern pastor and go to seminary ... well, time is a precious commodity. (Another story for another post.)

But a recent assignment for a digital media class in seminary made me realize that writing is part of my DNA. ... As I said before, it helps me make sense of the world. It gives me peace and the reflection I need to think about my day. And most of all, it allows me to tell stories. A gift that is God given, and for which I don't feel I can ignore any longer.

So here we go again. I'm rebooting with the Finding Faith blog. As with the first few posts, and this introductory post, I'm sure you are catching the drift. I want to use the blog to explore where I find faith and where faith finds me. That's a complicated story considering the many facets of my life. And over the course of time, I hope to explore that with you, and hope that you contribute to the conversation. ... Ultimately, I hope this blog helps others think about where they find faith AND where faith finds them. So please, join the conversation, and we'll go looking for answers together.

Here's to the start of one more writing adventure! ... Join me, won't you?