Beginning a New Thing…

Yes, New Year, New Beginnings

Here it is a New Year…. I have put off this whole idea of writing a blog that has more than sound bytes about my feelings, rants and raves, as well as things that I am passionate about for far too long.

As I have given thought about all my little posts of sayings and things on Facebook and Twitter, I felt that these other social media outlets was not the best medium for me to use.

This new beginning, this year for me, is to be more intentional on giving voice to my voice. Sometimes giving voice to the voiceless is actually finding a way to give a voice to my own voice. I am learning how to do that.

There is a voice within me that needs to have a platform where I feel a bit more safe, and can let you in on what’s going on in my heart and mind.  A place that is not as jumbled up as my Facebook friends and family, but honors the different silos that I seem to live in.

I hope that sharing my thoughts, and giving you an inside look at Dave, we might be able to connect more fully and more intimately.

The truth of the matter is I want YOU to know me better, and when we see each other, or communicate online, you’ll have a better feel for the real David.

The Silos

It’s interesting taking the journey of finding your “voice” and putting it out there for all the world to see.

Many people know me in different ways.

As I have thought about this, it seems to break down into different categories.

• Family
• Friends
• Church, ministry work, volunteering, etc
• Business – acquaintances, marketing and the companies that I own
• New people and contacts

There may be other areas to mention, but one of the things that held me back from even starting this blog was thinking I had to have a structure to it and it had to be well thought out… basically perfect before I started.

So, with complete abandon of the idea of structuring this (except for some navigation and some great pictures eventually) you are going to get more of a free-form spontaneous thoughts about things and my world.

When I think about finding my “voice” and what I really have to say about anything, the first thing that comes up is, how do I reconcile the different voices that I have about so many things? In other words, how do I bring my Christian values into the work world without offending or alienating anyone, or my work into Christian and family circles without the idea that I am using the relationships to make a sale..

This has created a bit of a quandary in my mind, since, as I mentioned before, my Facebook profile and “friends” are so varied that I have tried to keep it a bit on the generic side.

Not leaning to far into the fray with any controversy at all. I simply do not engage people there with anything that could be called into question or debated.

I do not like debates. Maybe I should. After all if I believe something so passionately I should be able to stand up and make a case for it right? Well, for now, I haven’t really felt that way in some areas. I am looking at becoming more congruent with all of this…

All of this dissonance has left me feeling like I need to close the gap between wha a couple of things that, until now, I have not been able to really share well or give voice to.

For instance, in a conversation I had the other day, one of the friends I have at church, he didn’t even know that I had a business. “I just have always know you as the ‘prayer’ guy.”  I kinda smiled, and acknowledged that at church, I am seen in a particular light, as I have chosen not to talk business that much… (now this brings up a whole other rant I have about if the church knew how practice community with each other around the businesses that we have, we may be able to be more of a New Testament church, and really support each other,  but I’ll save that for another post…)

On the other hand, in my business world, and some of the people I have met there, I have felt a little bit like a closet Christian.

I hate to admit that even the word Christian can trigger people and bring up things that may or may not represent where I am in my faith life. I choose not to defend or debate the reprehensible things done by Christians, or on the other hand try to convince people that Christianity is a person, Jesus Christ, not a religion per say.

I have chosen to walk the line in my Facebook world, being a little bit more in the middle with Christian principles and ideas, but not wanting to align myself with main stream idea of what it is to be a Christian, so I suppose I will simply refer to myself as a Jesus follower. Someone who believes that it was because God so loved the world… not so judged the world. This may ruffle a few feathers, however my latest hashtag I am using simply is #loveneverfails, because it doesn’t.

The silos have been a challenge for me, however I think part of the challenge has been to give voice to the challenge, hence this site and blog.

I’ll keep posting things as they come to mind. Thanks for stopping by.