mike retweeted
For more than 30 years, Christianity was not simply something I believed. It was part of the architecture of my life.
I studied it deeply. I earned seminary degrees and pursued advanced theological education. I spent nearly 12 years serving as a communications pastor in a substantial church setting. I taught the language, lived inside the culture, wrestled with the theology, and tried sincerely to understand what faith was supposed to mean.
Eventually, the questions became more important to me than protecting the answers.
Deconstruction did not begin because I was angry at God or because I wanted an easier life. It began because I reached a place where intellectual honesty required me to examine ideas I had once considered settled. Over time, I discovered that many of the answers that had once satisfied me no longer did. Faith was no longer resolving the questions I carried, and I could not force myself to believe something simply because I had invested decades believing it before.
There is a strange freedom in allowing yourself to say, “I do not know.”
There is also humility in recognizing that none of us possesses every answer to existence, meaning, suffering, morality, consciousness, or whatever may lie beyond this life.
That is why I have no desire to ridicule someone else's faith. If belief brings you peace, hope, comfort, community, or meaning, then I respect the role it plays in your life. Human beings have always searched for ways to make sense of being alive, and religion has been one of those ways for billions of people.
It is simply no longer mine.
One of the most meaningful things I have discovered outside of religion is that morality does not disappear when belief disappears. Compassion still matters. Honesty still matters. Love still matters. Justice still matters. How we treat people still matters.
I do not need the promise of heaven or the threat of punishment to believe that another human life has value.
If anything, recognizing how brief and uncertain life can be has made kindness feel more important, not less.
So I no longer feel the need to convince anyone to believe what I believe or disbelieve what I disbelieve. We are all trying to understand this strange experience of being alive with the information, experiences, questions, and limitations available to us.
This is simply where my journey has brought me.
If faith brings you peace, I respect that.
I have found my peace in learning that I am allowed to keep asking the questions.
mike retweeted
🎶 I could really use a little help from my friends and followers. 🎶
This throwback album means a lot to me because it represents a part of my musical history that I am grateful to finally be able to share again.
If you have a minute, I would really appreciate you following me on Spotify, streaming a song or two, saving the ones you like, and sharing them with someone who might enjoy them. Adding a song to one of your playlists helps more than you might think.
🎧 You can listen and follow here:
open.spotify.com/artist/6SHl…
To everyone who has already listened, shared, followed, or encouraged me along the way, thank you. It genuinely means a lot to me. ❤️🎸
#Spotify #ThrowbackAlbum #IndependentArtist #SupportIndependentMusic
My practice regimen consists mostly of songs or solos from them that caught my attention for whatever reason. A few examples here;
The rhythmic part of Nuno’s Rise solo. I slowed the clip to 75% so listener can hear how rhythmic, and percussive it is. Occasionally, I’ll work on hammer on stuff. Like the Beethoven piece.. I like learning YM stuff for his efficient econo picking. I’ll work on sweep picking, hybrid picking, and alternate but, I’ll always end with improv or learning new songs. 1 way I like to improv that I don’t hear much about, is to play off the melody of a popular song. Then, I like to practice improv with the chord changes and any random shit.