Somewhere Between The End And The Point Where We Begin.

I started my first blog when I was in high school; a tumblr account that I’ve made sure is no longer findable. The blog was a place for me to process my thoughts on life, what I was thinking about when it came to faith... and, also full of teenage angst and emotions on how the world was ending because the girl I liked didn’t like me back. While I am not in the same situation romantically (at least my wife and I promised in front of a lot of people and God we'd continue with this going forward), I thought that after the year we just had in 2020 that starting a blog again would be a good addition back into my life.

Why am I doing this?

There is something healing and therapeutic about the process of putting thoughts into words, words into sentences, and sentences into paragraphs that tell a story. Not only does writing down my thoughts help me refine and clarify what I think and believe, it also creates a snapshot of where I currently am in my journey. I want to always strive to be a person that is learning and growing, and with that will come change, progress, and refinement. Who I was 5 years ago and what I believed then is different than present day, and I hope who I am in 5 years from now is also different. This blog will allow me to put to paper (or screen I guess) what I believe at the time, and I hope show an evolution as my thoughts and beliefs.

Why publicly post it then?

While writing this is primarily for my own tracking/learning/growing, I hope in sharing any of this that it might be helpful for anyone who might read it. I hope that my experience, my stories, my education, and my thoughts might one day provide some value in someone else’s journey. I believe that things are better done in community, and I hope some of these posts become a springboard into conversation with each other.

What will I post?

I don’t want to limit what this blog might or will be. I have a few ideas in mind as to what I want to post, some topics I’ve been researching, and some things on my heart and mind. I’m going to try for bi-weekly entries. I already know I’ll sometimes drop the ball in that when I get too busy with life, it slips my mind, I have nothing to write about, or I’ve been working on a post that isn’t quite ready to go out yet (sometimes I’m too much of a perfectionist I freeze in starting)... but that's ok with me. I might even post more frequent than bi-weekly if I can, who knows.

After my first foray into blogging, I had another one while I was in Seminary that I had titled “somewhere between the end and the point we first began”, one of my favourite lyrics from an early NeedToBreathe song. I’m unsure what I’ll be calling this Blog entry, but I still love the sentiment that lyric conveys: We are ALL somewhere along on a journey from where we started to where it one day will finish. My sincere hope, if you are reading this, is that you will continue to track with me along this part of my journey. Write me a message when something resonates with you and you agree, and write me a message when you disagree as I would love to have a conversation about it. We only ever get good answers when we ask good questions... and there for sure will be posts where I'm asking questions that I don’t have a complete answer to, or where I’m sharing only one perspective on the issue. Helping process some of these things with feedback and conversation is a valuable resource that I want to encourage and invite you into. Till next time, Peace,

- Aaron Westera