Who am I, and how did I get here?

One of my favorite passages in The Lord of the Rings comes near the end of the The Two Towers. Frodo and Sam are resting after having just scaled the treacherous stair of Cirith Ungol. As they take their last rest before descending into Mordor, Sam begins to recall the beloved tales of old. As he ponders the heroes and mighty deeds of ages past, he comes to the startling realization that the tales have not, in fact, ended. And in wonder he exclaims:

"Why, to think of it, we're in the same tale still! It's going on. Don't the great tales never end?"

It is this same realization that has caused the Scriptures to come alive for me. No, the great tales never end. The old, old stories of the Bible are not (merely) ancient history. Nor are they limited to personal application as lofty lessons on morality. They are, in a very real way, our own story. My own story.

And when I finally learned to see myself in Scripture (specifically in the Israelites' cycle of sin and silence in the book of Judges, I'm sorry to say), I began to hunger for Scripture in a whole new way. After all,

"...in the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven meets His children with great love and speaks with them; and the force and power in the word of God is so great that it stands as the support and energy of the Church, the strength of faith for her sons, the food of the soul, the pure and everlasting source of spiritual life."   --Dei Verbum 21

Thus, this new blogging adventure. I want to dive deeper into Scripture, and I hope to place my humble work at the service of others who long to do the same.

Besides, I think it's just plain fun.

Scripture is a river, broad and deep. Sometimes (probably most of the time) we'll be wading with the lambs. And sometimes, God willing, we'll be swimming with the elephants.