Welcome

I don’t want to be a Christian writer if it means hitting backspace until I feel clean again.

Until I’m tidy and safe and can fit easily inside of one of your boxes. 

I don’t want to be a Christian writer if I have to pretend like I have my shit together, scratching out what I really feel and writing what I think your itching ears want to hear instead.

I don't want to be a Christian writer if it means I can’t have doubts about this system--not the Who or the Why, but the way we go about following Him.

I don't want to be a Christian writer if I have to spit out the same cliches, the same old words, the same tired traditions that no longer hold any significant meaning.

(For example: Think you have your religious lexicon down? Try defining and explaining what "grace" means. Seriously, open up a Word document and type out your answer in 2 sentences or less. See how long it takes you. Then do the same thing for words like "love," "justification," "repentance," "salvation", "church," "Christianity," and "baptism." Now compare your answers with a friend. We've all heard these phrases so often that we assume we know what they mean, but I've found that whenever you ask a Christian to describe these concepts, we either struggle more than we should, or we arrive at significantly different answers. What gives?)

So no, I don't want to be a Christian writer; we get too much of all that in the mutant American religion that disguises itself as the Church.

Instead, I want to be honest and free and vulnerable and fearless. After all, doesn’t authenticity speak louder than all the hypocrisy of the Pharisees? 

I’m tired of lying.

I’m sick of hiding. 

I’m done with make-believe. 

So here is where I will finally expose my vigorous heart, one painful, raw, and occasionally dirty word at a time. I hope you will stick around and join me in the conversation.