–  W. E. Hickson

To my readers (5 of my good friends),

For the past seven years, this blog has served as a stinging reminder of personal failure. Now it doesn’t sting much. But in a twist of irony, the title of this blog, “Refining and Reforming” rings incredibly true. Every year, I try to “restart” this blog. Like clockwork,  I pledge to myself that this will be the year that I provide stimulating content with consistent excellence. Each year I post one or two times, and clam up until the following year.

The process of failure has been refining and reforming for me. Through this process of failure, I’ve been refined and reformed in two ways.

First, I’ve realized that the idol of perfection has a propensity to crush those who bow to it. Most of my failure has been the result of not feeling as though I could produce content “good enough.” I wanted my posts to be original, thought-provoking, engaging…a tall order for someone who has written a total of 7 posts over the past 7 years. So I’m confessing this fault. Prepare to see more writing, but know rarely will a post tick all the boxes. This will require…

…GRACE.

Primarily, grace for myself. Not just me giving myself a break or cutting myself some slack. I need to seek actual grace. It will be by God’s grace that I persevere through writer’s block. His grace will sustain me to consistently let go of the perfection idol and trust that God can use imperfect posts to encourage others. Through my experience, I’ve learned that desire, aspiration, resources and trendy fonts can’t compensate for God’s grace to complete the task.

So thank you for your patience, as I continue on this journey of refining and reforming.

Please join me in praying that this blog would glorify the gracious Triune God, who created us, redeems us, welcomes us into His family, through His atoning life, death, and resurrection, sealing and empowering believers to grow in greater holiness through the indwelling of His Holy Spirit…an unfathomable being, but intimately known and loved by his adopted children; The Father, Son, and Holy ghost.