Welcome!

If Frederick Buechner is correct that “the place where God calls you is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet,” then this blog satifies at least one half of the equation; writing is where I find my deep gladness and all of my joy.  And there is nowhere I would rather be than right here.

Many of my spiritual tutors have been writers.  C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Philip Yancey, Stephen Lawhead populate my bookshelves alongside Keats, de Quincey, Shakespeare, and Austen.  Romans is my favorite book in the Bible; I turn to the Psalms in the quiet but find myself drawn to the prophetic books when I want to understand the lovesick, frustrated heart of God.  I revel in the fact that Jesus was an excellent storyteller. And I am a writer too, an academic and scholar who has been writing ever since I started making up stories about my neighbor’s cats as an eight-year-old.

Samaritan’s Song is an effort to take my deep joy in writing and to turn it back around as an offering.  I’ll be sharing Bible studies here and devotionals, and reviewing books and music from time to time.  I want to pray for you, and pray with you.  And I hope that you, too, will pray for me.

I’m aware that this is one of ten thousand similar blogs on the Internet; I hardly think I’m special, or that I have a unique claim to anyone’s time or attention.  What I do believe, though, is that God makes use of those who make themselves available, who offer up their time and efforts for whatever His purposes might be.  I hope then, like the Samaritan, that I might stop and pause and make space in my life for grace and God’s overwhelming love.  This blog is all I have to give.

So to you, I say: welcome!  Regardless of your denomination if you are a believer, regardless of whether you are a believer or not, regardless of where you come from or where you are going, welcome and all peace to you.

I look forward to sharing this journey.