Before I fire off another one-liner or quip from the hip…I can’t, in good conscience or otherwise, apologize for my “newfound” belief, zeal and testimony in and for Jesus Christ. Just can’t do it. I do realize some of my friends and family may think, “Whoa, easy there, hoss, with all the Jesus talk” and that’s all well and good…for them.

I’m the new, enhanced version of my old self and I love it. I love where God is taking me and I really love that A is my wife on this journey and I love that I have a built-in family of 7 great kiddos that are coming along for the ride, making this life trip all the better.

I have found that talking openly abut Jesus puts some people on the edge…of a cliff…where some of them slowly inch backwards away from me, while some others just turn around to that edge and opt to jump off before I can say a word. That’s no good.

I was that way, too, at the start of my journey. You couldn’t get me to talk about religion – wait, yes you could, but it was not actually to dispute God’s existence, I’ve always believed in that. It was more to dispute the Bible and it’s meanings being literal and word-for-word exact versus allowing for loose interpretations and allowing a treasure hunt for hidden meanings like I was Jacques Cousteau and it was the great blue vastness with sharks and whales and stuff.

I was uneasy with the notion of full-on Christianity and what it truly meant because I was so long living in a world where I thought I knew what it was to be a Christ-follower. “WWJD?” (What Would Jesus Do?) was just a message on a trendy-ish bracelet. Nothing more. I didn’t know any better.

I’m kinda rambling today and this post has really veered off its intended course which was I don’t know what anymore, but I’ll sum up by saying I’m not sorry for being an outspoken, outwardly-living Christian. I’ve too long been a person who wasn’t.

And if any of you knew me before I became this dude who hands out Bibles to homeless people, then you should not question the awesome power of God and His ability to redeem a sinner, and then turn that sinner/punk/meanie/”insert adjective here” into someone you’d like to hang around with, rather than run away from.

And before you even say that my change is all due to A, I pose this question: Who put her in my path? Santa Claus?

And before you say “fate” did it…I’ll ask you, “What does a small town in northeast Texas have to do with anything? I’m talking about God here. Duh.”