Once, as I was just learning how to bake bread, I looked into the glass bowl of my stand mixer at a cream colored goo. What was supposed to be a supple and cohesive dough, looked more like cake batter. I had to decide—would I throw it all out and start again? or would I try to salvage the seemingly unsalvageable?

The first time I spoke to a room full of teenagers as a new youth pastor, my whole body shook. My knees, my hands, my voice. I read the message directly from my notes and willed myself to look up as much as possible. I wish I could say the second time was easier, but for at least a few months, every time I had to speak, I felt like I was going to throw up.

When I was much younger, my dad held the back of the banana seat on my blue bike, grabbed one of my handle bars, and guided me down our driveway. I had used training wheels until they had almost fallen off, and that day, my dad had removed them. He tried to guide me down the street until he felt like he could let go.

Welcome to the beginning of a journey that I hope you will take with me. In this place, I hope we are able to talk about hard things and good things. I want to share with you what is giving me hope in life and in our world today. And it is my goal to encourage and empower you in the mundane of the present, and in your dreams for the future.

But, this is only the beginning. Though I am not new to blogging or writing, this journey is new. Sometimes, my posts will be like gooey bread dough or you will almost be able to hear my voice falter. They will be like so much of life, in that they will be unpolished. Often, I will share parts of my story—some may not be pretty, others told imperfectly. But hopefully, overtime like knowing the faults of a good friend, you will be able to see my heart and not give up on me. I know that I am not planning to give up on us.

Thank you for reading this first post, and I hope you will join me again soon.