Welcome Freddy Jaoquin Acevedo

On Sunday afternoon Freddy and Erin Acevedo welcomed Freddy Joaquin Acevedo into the world. He came in at 7 lbs, 2 ounces and he's already better at sports than I am.


Feel free to use the comment section to send good wishes and congratulations to Freddy and Erin. Also, remember, if you have a birth you'd like mentioned here, on the blog, email me at patchdrury@gmail.com.

What were you made for

A couple of months ago I was reading this book that spent a lot of time talking about how every person should have an over-arching mission for their life. Instead of letting your life be defined by a job, it should be defined by the legacy that you want to leave behind you when you're gone.

Jobs and occupations, especially these days, can be volatile and temporary, so taking your identity from what you get paid for is sometimes a losing proposition. Taking your identity from your mission in life (which will, if you're lucky, include your job sometimes) is a much more satisfying experience and encompasses your whole life instead of just the hours between 9 and 5.

Reading that book made me sit down and try and figure out what my goal in life was. Clearly, as a Christian, I have a goal to try and follow God and honor him with my life - but what does that look like inside of my specific situation? What was I made for?

I think I've figured out that I'm supposed to tell stories. For edification. For entertainment. On blogs. On stage. On video. In print. By myself. With others. Through others. I feel like I have this thing inside of me that wants to write and produce stories. So that's what I'm trying to do. Maybe it'll change as I get older and wiser, but for now, that's what I see.

What about you? What are you made for? What is it that, when you're dead, you want people to look back at your life and remember? What's your mission in life, whether you're accomplishing it or not?

Still kickin'

Didn't want you guys to think that I'd already given up on posting after my declaration of renewed diligence. I figure my new schedule will be posting twice a week. I know some of our readers aren't on the internet all day like I am - so I want to leave some topics sitting as close to the top of the page as possible for a while.

If you haven't yet, please scroll down the page and vote in the politics poll. And, if you'd like, take a second and use the comment section to elaborate on your feelings on religion and politics.

voting and religion

It's impossible to turn on a tv or the radio lately and not hear about the upcoming Presidential election. And by "upcoming" I mean "still eight months away."

They say there are two things you shouldn't talk about in polite conversation: religion and politics. I think you could probably add a lot more things to that list ( sex, my uncle Eddie's gastro-intestinal problems, how sausage is made...). For now, though we're gonna eschew the rules of polite conversation and talk about religion AND politics. Specifically I want to discuss how your religion affects your politics.

To help you form your answer, here's a helpful poll:



After you vote, click on the comment button and tell us a little bit about yourself and how your politics and religion go together. Remember, though, there are lots of varied opinions on this kind of thing, so be respectful of other people and try to avoid useless generalizations like, "All republicans stub out their cuban cigars on puppies" or "All democrats live in hemp houses and mooch off the government."

Personally, I went through a stage in my life where politics and religion were so intermingled that they might as well have been the same thing. These days there are lots of times when I feel like the two things shouldn't be allowed anywhere near each other. Politics seem so dirty and compromised - I'm afraid if it becomes intwined with my religion some of the dirty will rub off.

I think like most things in this fallen world, there's room for God to step in and redeem politics on some level. I freely admit I don't know how that's supposed to happen, though. Thoughts?

Of blogs and other things

I've been posting on blogs, in some form or another, for the last five or six years. I like the format. I like the potential for unlimited access that writing on the internet offers.

When this blog started back a little over a year ago, I was excited to have another outlet for writing.

As time went by, though, I found it harder and harder to contribute. On my personal blog, I have no problem writing. I just kind of vomit out whatever is in my head and push the "publish" button. With this blog, though, I didn't want my voice to come through too much. I wanted it to be about stuff that would interest our community as a whole, instead of just me and my weird, juvenile interest.

When that became hard to do, I stopped posting as much. Luckily, there were other volunteers to step in and take up some of the slack. Life, however, eventually catches up with all of us and posting, as you know doubt have noticed, has slowed to a crawl.

Today, looking at this site, I felt a twinge of regret. Regret that I let something with so much potential wither on the vine. This blog has the potential to be a great sounding board and forum for the Crossroads community. All it requires is me not worrying so much about what I put down here - and opening the door to new voices.

So welcome to the second age of the Crossroads blog. I will, from this point on, endeavor to make it a site worth visiting. And I'd love your help doing so. Here's some stuff you can do to help:

1. Comment. If you don't use the comment section, then this blog is a one-sided conversation. And you have my promise that I will work hard to give you content worth commenting on.

2. Submit. Have something you want to talk about? Think you could be a strong contributor to the blog? Send me an email at patchdrury.com with your ideas and what you'd like to see from the blog. We can't give everybody posting rights, but there's room for lots more voices at this point.

3. Tell people. Lots of folks don't even know that this blog or the teaching blog exist. If you would like to see this aspect of our community grow - tell people about it.

That's it for now. New content later today!