If you have reached this page, it’s likely because you are in spiritual deconstruction, and you’re trying to piece your worldview–and even your identity–back together. True, deconstructing your faith is something only you can do. You must have your ‘wilderness experience.’ But I’ve been there as well, and I want you to know you’re not alone.
When I began deconstructing about fifteen years ago, I knew nothing of the communities surrounding these discussions. I am happy now to be a part of a colorful mix of spiritual misfits and outsiders, however we’re known–as ‘happy heretics,’ or ‘exvangelicals’ or ‘recovering fundamentalists,’ or ‘Nones.’
Another reason I write? You see, I still see God. Deconstruction, for me, is not the destruction of faith, but its enlargement. God and even your spirit are bigger and more durable than you have ever imagined. But it might take getting off the merry-go-round of religion to see that. So I write to explore with my new friends the heights and depths of a spirituality unchained.
I’m not gonna lie. Deconstructing can extremely painful. I didn’t even know that was what it was called at the time. I had no terminology for what was going on. I just thought I was . . . damned. This process has cost me certainty, community, and the regard of some of the people I’ve held closest. But I believe I can say of the most foundational relationships, with God and with myself, “It is well.”
Here we will be examining some of those incongruencies between Christian principles and Christian practice that have strained the faith of so many. We will explore common misconceptions concerning Scripture and examine alternative ways to understand Scripture. We will attempt to understand the faith in its founding contexts, but also to apply it in our own context. We will disentangle ourselves from man-made creeds. We will celebrate devotional moments and find new understandings of what is sacred. We’re even–gasp!–going to explore the wisdom of different faith traditions.
Lastly, I write because . . . I have to. I am a writer. It is what I do. And because I am a preacher of sorts, whether or not the Christian establishment recognizes me as such anymore. It is my call and the thing I must do if I am to live authentically. And I think to live authentically is the beginning of faith–trusting God about what God made you. That is one thing I hope to accomplish through my writing: Helping you see the sacredness in You.
I dedicate this blog to all who were promised, “There are no gray areas,” only to find themselves in the gray between real trouble and lyrical hope, and to all who are committed to finding beauty and connection there.
The Lyrical Realist 