andy blogs

i've been trying to get andy to write for some time now, and he was worried that his material would be far too melancholy for our lighthearted blog. after janie's baptism yesterday, he was inspired to write his first blog ever, and i think it's great. so here it is, a little something from the much more intellectual third of the simonds', along with a few photos from sunday for good measure...

In the late fall of 1998 I sat down in a big leather chair in the office of the Dean of the School of Religion at Belmont University. I would be graduating in a few days with a degree bearing his signature, and I was there for my exit interview. He asked questions about my educational experience, and my answers probably more than his questions led us to a place where we were talking about why I wasn’t sure anymore about the existence of God. I told him that there was something deep inside me that just wouldn’t let me walk away from my faith either. I was still surprised by the warmth in my heart and wetness in my eyes that would well up upon hearing some old hymn or reading a story in scripture that I thought I knew well. I remember him saying that this was a good starting place for rebuilding my faith and theology, and I remember thinking that was a nice sentiment. But more than that I remember struggling with this disturbing thought: Maybe that something deep inside me isn’t some mystic connection with God, or the Holy Spirit at work… Maybe it is just stuck in my subconscious because I was brainwashed with it as a child! Maybe it became true for me before reason became part of the equation and maybe that’s why reason still couldn’t really touch it. I remember brushing all this under the rug and deciding to forget I’d left it there.

Tonight I was reading Janie’s picture Bible, and I was surprised by the warmth in my heart and the wetness in my eyes… and with a lump in my throat I became suddenly grateful for the stuff my parents told me before reason became a part of the equation.

Proverbs 22:5-6

5 In the paths of the wicked lie thorns and snares,
but he who guards his soul stays far from them.
6 Train a child in the way he should go,
and when he is old he will not turn from it.