Gripping Gray Matter - An Introduction

Yeah. Another blogger getting started. I figured it would be a good idea to start one more thing in what is arguably the busiest time in my life thus far. I am a man. A husband. A father. A Christian. A pastor. A therapist. A friend. A somewhat ambitious do-it-yourselfer. A decent skier, and a really mediocre golfer. Probably a few other things too. And if that's all you knew, you might neatly fit me into a boring little cardboard box, close the lid, and flip to the next blogger's site. You may do that anyway. But before you do that, check out a few of my other posts and see if what I have to say sparks any interest.

This means an introduction is in order. Hello. My name is James. For the past year or so I have lived with my little family in Highlands Ranch, CO south of Denver. I have been married for a little over 13 years. My wife's name is Amy, and we have three kids, two girls who are 7 and 5, and a little dude who is now 2. I grew up in a very small town in upstate New York. Went to school in Abilene, TX, and got my masters in Seattle. Since we got married in August 2000, we've lived in Denver, Seattle, Dublin, Ireland, a couple of cities just north of Dallas, and are now back in Denver. And I'm hoping that we're here for good.

Now, the why. Why write? Why blog? Well, I discovered my love of writing during  grad-school, and though I have a lot of other things to keep me busy, I have been encouraged by friends and family members to take my crazy, random, and sometimes thought-provoking ideas and perspectives out of my brain and put them out for a wider audience. I had used Facebook to write some bloggish posts before, two in the last week, and Amy encouraged me to just start a blog instead. So that's what I'm doing. I'll be writing when the mood strikes me, and on a variety of subject matter. Some of it will likely be based on sermons I'm writing, books I'm reading, counseling and relationship topics, and probably some other stuff I couldn't even predict right now. I hope that at least some of the content I write will resonate with those who read. My aim is to do justice to the blog title - gripping gray matter.