Setting Expectations
If you just wandered in here “by accident”, or were trying to get here, you may be wondering what you can expect to find here. The simple answer to that question is the record of a grief being experienced in real time – or as close as I can get it. The story concerns the marriage between my wife Janet and I, and how it is being cut short by an inherited genetic condition called Huntington’s Disease.
You should also know that I am a committed Christian, so if you are offended by “God talk”, references to the Bible and the Divine, you will find much to be offended over here. However, I would like to suggest that you stay and keep reading. The fact of the matter is that grief and grieving are huge problems and while various secular approaches might be able to offer some temporary relief, true healing requires the involvement of someone bigger than you, and with a broader perspective than you can muster – sorry…
To my fellow Christians, you may be interested in a statement of faith – what I believe in and how I would identify myself. You will, however, look in vain for those statements. The reason why is two-fold.
First, the blog posts that you will read are my statements of faith, not in the fancy words of a theologian, but in the simple thoughts and actions of a believer. If you want to know what I believe, see what I do. As Jesus said, “You will know a tree by its fruits…”
Second, I am not going to put a label on myself for the simple reason that people (even Christian people) are sometimes all too ready to put people in boxes based on labels and what they think the labels mean. For example, if I called myself an “Evangelical” that would automatically make me someone to listen to for some Christians, and someone to be viewed with suspicion by others. Likewise, if I identified as a “Confessional, Sacramental Christian” I would excite (and bother) other different groups of people. And so it would go with whatever label I chose to apply:
- Charismatic
- Fundamentalist
- Born Again
- Trinitarian
- Bible-believing
- Orthodox or orthodox
- Catholic or catholic
- etc…
Unfortunately, regardless of what I put down, I would be in essence picking an audience. So while there are times where the distinctions between these various labels might be important, for this venue, my choice is to not play the game.
So there you have it. You’re expectations should be properly set. We good?