New Wineskins

I’m a mid-40-something follower of Jesus. I wasn’t always that way. For over thirty years I was a ‘happy pagan’, deeply skeptical of all religion, and especially Christianity… when I wasn’t simply agnostic, imagining it all to be silly myths — a crutch for stupid people who couldn’t deal with reality.

Then God kind of grabbed me. I wasn’t planning on it. In fact, it interfered with my plans pretty profoundly. I was running the other direction, both literally and figuratively. (I was training for and doing well racing Ironman triathlons at the time. They were my 24/7 idol. I was exceedingly fit on the outside; but not so much where it counted — in my soul.)

I was also at the top of my game career-wise — flying around the world telling Fortune 100 companies what to do, convinced I’d be able to retire on dot.com stock options in a few years. Then it all blew up. No dot.com. No stock options. No job.

About the same time, my younger daughter (then about eight) asked me: “Daddy, why don’t you ever come to church with us?” I didn’t have an answer (much less one that wouldn’t hurt or confuse her) and so I had to actually think about it: why didn’t I go to church?

A few months later, 9-11 happened. I don’t know anyone who didn’t ask larger questions for awhile after that.

Finally, a friend invited me to a Bible study about a block from my house. I was unemployed at that point and so figured, ‘why not?’ It would be fun poking holes in the lame arguments of these ignorant, superstitious Christians, I reasoned.

Only that’s not how it turned out. I came in with much higher academic credentials, fitness and income than any of them, but I came out realizing how little that mattered in the long run and how little I actually knew about the Bible. Four months later, despite my strongest intentions going into that process of study, I had to confess: Christianity is demonstrably true and it explains more about my life and the world than any other system of belief I’ve encountered. (And I have looked into most of them.)

I’ve been the husband of one woman for over 20 years now, father of two teenage girls, gifted with a love of writing and long-distance running. To pay the bills, I help executives at big companies develop their strategic thinking and innovation capabilities while I work on a novel and a kind of spiritual memoir centered on my late brother.

I’ve lived my entire life in Massachusetts–all but four years of it in suburbs of Boston. (The rest I spent out in the Berkshires). I’ve traveled widely for business and pleasure and always thought I would live in the mountains somewhere. Recently, I have come to accept that this is where God wants me, at least for now. On the Internet it doesn’t matter much anyway.

This blog is a fresh vehicle for sharing with friends–old, new and future–as the Holy Spirit nudges me to do so. It may address some of the issues I did on my old one but with a somewhat different emphasis.

If you’ve gotten this far, I’d love to hear form you. You can e-mail me at: hiscannytruthhour [at] gmail [dot] com (extra points if you can figure out the gimmick)