"Mike, shut up"
Odd that my first post begins with this injunction, but that's exactly where I need to start.

This blog could be used to post my whines, my gripes, my fears, my rambles, on and on and on, and while it may incorporate some of those at times, that is not the overwhelming reason behind its creation.

There's something better than Mike's weaknesses, flaws, quirks, brags, and all that.

God's better.

And that's part of the message that hits me late at night, when I'm sitting around navel-gazing and moaning, just to take my eyes off of myself and onto Jesus.

He rose from the dead.

Re-type that.

He rose from the dead.

That's it, and it changes everything. And there's so much that goes with it, that redemption is real, and that I don't need to run from God and look for something else, but that if I were to just look towards Jesus, so much would become visible, and I would see something better than myself, first of all.

Through the last six months, much of what's made its way through me has stayed inside, and what's come out has been the, well, junk, for the most part. This is an outlet through which the rest can come out, through the keys, and filter to the rest of my being, hopefully serving as an agent of transformation.

I hope to post here regularly, and to hit on all fronts of what's going on in this life, including the brooding that I know well and do not wish to gloss over, and the start is this, a call to shut up.

Because while 'it doesn't matter' seems shallow, dismissive, and callous, I'm not the prime factor, and as such, I do need to take my focus off myself, my reputation, how I am perceived, and all that goes with that. And it is possible...coolly enough.
Praise God.