Origins
Hey, if you’re reading this, you’re probably wondering why I made this site (well, actually, I would hope the main purpose is fairly straightforward and perspicuous, but it’s not just a site about my life… well, kind of…) or why I picked the name/motto that I did.
So, without becoming too prolix, I hope I can clarify – or “enhance” your understanding, if you would be so kind as to allow an explicit explanation.
PURPOSE
My primary purpose was to provide a way to keep people who were interested in the going-ons of my life updated without sending mass e-mails and clogging up the inboxes of those who weren’t.
It is also for myself, however – and even no one else reads these thoughts except myself, that’s enough.
I want to write so that I won’t forget – the good times with the bad, the people I meet and love, those who care and show their concern, the strange quirks that happen in life, serendipity, coincidence, and deja-vu, God’s blessings in disguise, victories-to-be dressed up as trials and tribulations, growth, time…
…life.
I think of the song “Life is Beautiful” by Vega4 (listen to it here, in my blog post). I don’t want to let it go.
NOMENCLATURE
I was very convicted over the summer (’10) of how I’d really lost sight of “the goal.” I’d distracted myself and forgotten who I am, and – more importantly – the One who made me who I am, the One who saved me when I wasn’t worth saving.
I say this because in some ways it’s too late to say this. At this point, most people who know me only know the post-me, the one that’s been changed and healed and generally “patched up.”
Not that I’m perfect now – far from it. I keep seeing Him work in my life, cleaning up the stains that I try to hide, waiting for me to give over the rags that I’m scared to let into the light.
So in my initial blog, which was through Wordpress, I went with the username “voiceofasinner.” I wanted “voiceofasinner” to remind me of who I was - a sinner - and the title of the blog, “A Soul Redeemed,” to remind me of who I am now, through Him.
When I transferred over to Tumblr though (because I like having every thing in one place, and for various reasons I prefer Tumblr now), I decided to change it.
Because the point is that I was a sinner. I am one no longer. Not because I no longer sin, but because I’ve been redeemed. I’m no longer counted as a sinner in the eyes of God. So it seemed silly to present myself as one before men.
Do I still make mistakes? Of course. All this writing is a record of the mistakes - and blessings - in my life. All the same, if I claim my identity as a sinner, I’m choosing to focus on the past and what I’ve been. I would rather focus on who I am and am becoming, on my hope for the future.
So I picked “thricebeloved,” because I am the beloved of God. And so are you. A beloved child of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
And I’m still on this journey, still going slowly (at times, too quickly at others), and still falling and trying to follow. But this time, I hope that I can record it, as a testimony and witness to the world, and to myself that, despite it all, He makes life beautiful and worth everything.
Because He does. He is faithful to the end.
