In the beginning...

I am very aware that I don't know much about this underworld of blogging. I'm not a writer, just somebody who wishes he was. I tried starting a blog last summer when my wife and I moved to Northern Ireland. The idea was purely to keep family and friends informed of what was going on in our life here. Some of you may remember it. Long story short, I was offloading one day on my blog about the organisation that employed me at the time and was sharing some intimate details of things that were going on behind the scenes at work. The next day my boss, obviously Internet savvy, found his way to my blog. He wasn't happy about what he read. As a result I was called into an emergency meeting along with the board of director's and was asked to apologize and delete what I had said. I decided to stop posting after that. (This sounds scarier than it was. If you want to hear more about this whole story shoot me an email and I'll fill you in)

At the time I was 31 years old and that was the day I learned about the Internet. I am so completely naive when it comes to these things. It never once crossed my mind that what I was writing on my blog was available to the entire world! Hello?! As a result of my naivety, I've been fighting this whole blogging/facebooking phenomenon for quite some time. Not sure exactly why, but some would argue that it's my rebellious nature. If I'm honest, they are probably right.

So here I am. After some encouragement from my brothers in Atlanta I'm going to stop fighting. This is a monumental day for me, starting a blog AND joining facebook all at the same time. So the first big task is to name my blog page. Of course, I want to appear smart, clever and funny, while at the same time get people's attention. So what better name than Nomadic Heretic?

I grew up in an amazing, loving Christ-centered family. I absolutely love my family! My Dad was pastor of a great community church in Atlanta full of wonderful Christ-centered people who loved me very much and who I loved as well. They were my family! Despite all this, for some reason, from a very young age I remember having feelings that I didn't belong. These feelings have never seemed to go away. Years ago I helped pioneer a new church plant in Atlanta and was in a leadership capacity at that church for most of my time there. Even though I was very much an intricate part of that church body, I never felt like I fully belonged. Last week my wife and I were talking about our life together. We've been married for almost 7 years now. She is my best friend, really a God send. As we reflected on the past few years of life together we realised that we both felt like nomads. Nomads that happened to find each other. I've been reflecting on this thought throughout the week and I'm still not sure where I stand. But here's the thought that won't go away... maybe God made me this way. Maybe he made me this way because I don't belong here. I don't belong in this broken, mucked-up, crazy world of war, greed and poverty (to name a few). Some would call it hell on earth. Maybe God put me here to bring heaven to this hell and as such He won't ever let me settle.

I am signing up for a leadership course that our church here in Belfast is running called "Heretic". When I heard the name I was very intrigued. Here's the explanation: "Heretics were religious groups whose beliefs did not wholly conform with the medieval Church's doctrines. (Many centuries before St. Paul acknowledges that he is part of a movement that is literally called her-e-sin, Acts 24:14) While groups themselves ranged in beliefs, their commonality was their rejection and persecution by the Church. Many of the groups still thought of themselves as Christians despite the Church's rejection. Some felt that the Church had changed too much and that it, in fact, was heretical. In this way, heretics were both within and outside the Church. It is often hard to determine whose beliefs were truly heretical."

So, there you have it. I am the nomadic heretic.