After an unsuccessful attempt at putting a picture on my blog, I thought the only other thing I could do is "publish a post". Any advice on how to put a picture on this thing would be greatly appreciated. And here I thought I was a man of the "00's"......

Well, I left off with a mention of God and Christianity on my last post. The reason is that one is very important to me - in fact it is the most important thing to me. The other is a term that is tossed around by society like a cigarette butt being thrown out a car window. Ok, so sadly both are tossed around that way. To me, God surpasses all things in terms of importance. The reasons are countless but one major one is that He transcends this earth. He is eternal while all other things are......ternal (?) How about temporary? However, I usually have that fact reversed in my life. A new client that I may get or my plans for the weekend are what I think about while I am lying in bed. Not God. I confess that I think about God when I am in church (and not always then) or when I am staring out over a beautiful landscape or on those rare occasions when I shut the heck up and be quiet for a minute. As a human - selfish, easily distracted, easily influenced - I find myself concerning myself with stupid stuff like what is for dinner or why can't I buy an Infinity G35 rather than what is eternal. What is going to LAST. The crazy thing is that God still loves me. If I were Him, I would have drop kicked me into the Atlantic a long time ago. But He forgives and forgives and forgives and forgives and loves and loves and loves and.....you get the idea. He loves me. That is crazy to think about. He loves you. Even if you think things that would get you arrested or if you do things when you get that feeling in your stomach and you know that it will hurt someone else but will give you some twisted feeling of satisfaction and self importance. God still loves you. That is the God that I love. Unfortunately, those that are on this earth that follow God and are asked to share His message and His love to the rest of the world have messed up huge and made a big mess that no P.R. agency would ever want to try and work damage control on.

Christianity - and specifically Christians including and especially yours truly have messed things up big time. The world looks to Christians to be the example of who God is and how He acts. The problem is that we are trying to reflect a perfect and beautiful God when we are anything but perfect and beautiful. We are weak, sinful, self indulgent beings who are being asked to love the way that God does. The thing is we can't. At least not all the time. We are just as fallen and hurting as the rest of the world. We just don't like to show it. Even worse, we try and think of ourselves as BETTER than people who are not Christians. Where is THAT message in the Bible? We cast judgment on people who have problems we don't have (like our problems are better or more accurately less worse than someone elses - please). It is a natural HUMAN thought to have. But it is about as unnatural a thought for God as is possible.

So, for those of you who may read this that may not consider yourselves a "Christian" (and I can do my best to explain the definition if you like) or even religious - I'm sorry. I have been a bad example of God. I am a sinner. I am as far from perfect as the next person. I am no better than you. I have just realized that I am a sinner and asked God to forgive me and help me do a better job of serving Him. What that looks like, I'm not sure. But I know it starts with loving others more than me. That is a tall task for a sinner like me. But there is no better time to start than now.

Thanks again for reading.

I guess I am way behind the times. Apparently, blogs have been around for a few years. I guess that's ok - I still have never illegally downloaded a song so I must be a little slow. Sorry veteran bloggers. I do dig the idea of writing stuff for people to see and comment on. Hopefully someone will read this and post. Even if you think I am an idiot and my blog is melodramatic, I'm ok with that. At least you took the time.

Well, I guess the natural thing to do in my first blog is to explain what my name means and all of that. Well, it actually has meaning on a number of levels. My best friend's stepdad gave me the nickname "Chief Rain in the Face" because I have been known to have bad luck wherever I go. I've had food poisoning enough times to be considered a biohazard myself. I am a Philadelphia sports fan - that should be explanation in and of itself. I have gotten a hole in one but had no one there to see it. In fact, I didn't even see it. I took a penalty and got a 4 on the hole. So I guess "dry in rain" is supposed to be some sort of defiance to my bad luck. Any psych majors out there, feel free to analyze this at any time.

The "rain" also means life. I have become keenly aware at how "life" - work, school, chores, errands, television - to name a few facets - can consume you much like when you are standing in the rain you have no way of not getting wet. You wake up in the morning and get ready for another day in much the same way you did countless days prior. You go through the motions of life day in and day out only to find a week has gone by. A month has gone by. A year has gone by. Has anything happened of worth - other than the weekends that you count down to every week or the vacations you savor for a week or two only to be right back where you started (perhaps worse?) when you return. "dry in rain" is my meager attempt at avoiding that. While I have a job to go to and I have errands to do, I don't want those things to define me. I don't want those things to count down the time - minutes, hours, days - I have on this earth.

"Rain" to me also means sin. In this life, everyone sins. To exist on this earth and not sin is like jumping into the ocean and not getting wet. In this instance, "dry in rain" does not mean that I am perfect. Far from it. Here, "dry in rain" is yet another meager attempt. It is a stab at doing the impossible. It is my attempt to curb my human nature. As a human being, my instincts tell me to be selfish - to think of myself. To sin. While I know I will fail at this venture, I do want to strive for perfection. Not because perfection is the point. Not because doing the right thing will bring eternal happiness and joy. Not because I will achieve financial gain. I am doing it because that is what God calls me to do - to live in the world but not of the world.

Uh oh - I mentioned the "G" word. Yes, I am a Christian. However, that doesn't mean that I always vote Republican, watch televangelists, hate gay people and want to blow up abortion clinics. Actually, quite the opposite is true in every case.

However, to explain further, I will wait until my next post. :) Thanks for reading so far.

Oh yeah, "Reflecting on the journey" - I just thought it sounded deep. I had about 10 different ideas and got impatient so I decided on this one. Moving, isn't it?