Greetings, Reasons, and Expectation Management

Hey All,

Welcome to Misfit Missives. The reason for this blog is to explore matters of faith, scripture, and beliefs as I see them through the lenses of my varying contexts and to engage with others in a dialogue. Let’s begin with why Misfit Missives?

Misfit is a label that I identify with very much. Merriam-Webster defines a misfit as a person who is poorly adapted to a situation or environment. Misfit is a word that by it’s very meaning conjures up an us vs. them framework. If I am a misfit in one situation or environment then that must mean there are those who do “fit” in said situation or environment and I’m not one of them. This also means that those who do fit that situation or environment are then misfits in my situation or environment. At any given moment in some shape or form we’re all misfits. Now I don’t mean that in a warm fuzzy feel good way. “Hey, we’re all misfits here! Let’s hug!” No, to be a misfit is to recognize the space in between any given situation or environment and make a choice as to which situation or environment you’re going to be a misfit of and that’s not easy. For example, to be a Christian, to strive to follow Christ, for my allegiance to lie with the kingdom of God, means that there are situations and environments that I will be a misfit in and that gets messy.

Since it’s going to get messy I’d like to make clear right up front that anything I post on this blog will be from my vantage point as informed by my contexts. The idea and notion of an All Encompassing Truth is not something that I perceive to be within the grasps of humans. At best we catch glimpses, flashes, glimmers of truth through a dim and dirty glass. What will be contained here will be my thoughts, experiences, hopes, and notions of those flashes as seen by me through my rather smudged glass. These are my thoughts not the thoughts. Anything you post here I will take to be your thoughts not the thoughts.

Missive, again according to the good folks at Merriam-Webster, is a written communication. These posts will be written in letter form so as to encourage dialogue. While I’m certain that the vast majority of them will go out largely unnoticed, like old broadcasts of I Love Lucy drifting through space, it is my hope to begin an exchange with readers who are so inclined.

However, I’m not interested in debate. It has been my experience that when I debate I lose sight of trying to understand where another human is coming from and instead focus on defending and fortifying my own positions. I will try my best not to engage in that sort of communication here. If debate is what you are hoping for I would encourage you to seek another forum. This being the internet there is no shortage of outlets for such communication. I would like this to be a safe place for questions and exploration. The guiding principle for feedback and dialogue will be seeking to understand one another rather than being understood by one another. Any comments left in the feedback that I find to be counterproductive to this goal will not be posted.

So, welcome to Misfit Missives. Let’s see where this takes us.

Have a good one,

Carl