My First Blog Entry...

The other day I celebrated my sixth anniversary of moving to small-town Utah.

Well, perhaps "celebrate" isn't exactly the right word. I'm not saying that it's something I wouldn't celebrate, it's just that I found myself celebrating other things that were more meaningful...a milestone birthday of a friend, the restoration of a century-old window in our church's sanctuary, a cutthroat game of George and a bottle of wine shared with some friends on a Sunday night, or the fact that after six years of living in this quirky little town on the Northern Wasatch Front, God is still faithful, Jesus still loves me and saves me in spite of myself, and that I have no cause to believe that will ever change.

I've never done a blog before. It's something I've wanted to do for several years now, though my reasons have changed over time. I suppose I once had aspirations of being a writer, and maybe still do, even though there's something vaguely narcissistic about thinking that anyone cares much about what I write.

But now, my motivation is just to write. That cathartic, soul-detoxifying drive to create strings of characters and words and thoughts and ideas. And now that everyone with 46 chromosomes (give or take) has a blog these days, I can comfortably and anonymously slip on to the blogging bandwagon. Without any aspirations that anyone but myself will actually read my one droplet in the expansive blogosphere. So if you're reading this, and you aren't me, then thank you...but if a year goes by and I don't get a single hit (and that's as likely as not), I honestly and truly don't care. I'll probably still be writing. Sometimes...you just gotta write.

I don't have any particular plan for what theme or shape this blog will take. I've named my blog "Among the Saints" in part because I live among the Latter-day Saints (Mormons). But I don't really want this to be a blog about Mormonism. Heaven knows, there are plenty of them already, some quite excellent (I'll be posting some links to some good ones). Nevertheless, since it has a significant influence on my day-to-day life, and I'm involved with a church and ministry that actively seeks to share biblical truth with Mormons in a relevant and loving manner, the subject will come up from time to time. Maybe frequently. I'm also a dedicated and sold-out follower of Jesus Christ. So that will come up, too, though this isn't intended to be my pulpit, either. I feel no need to tie up every entry with some pithy spiritual observation. If I've got one, I'll share it for what it's worth; if not, then I'm not going to make something up!

So thank you for reading my first blog entry. (And if you're just me popping in to see if my blog is actually "published," then for crying out loud, stop re-editing this post in your head...and get to bed!)