Four Things I Will Never Do

1. Answer the question: "Is my wife perfect?"

2. Answer the question: "Is my church perfect?"

3. Make a list of what is possibly wrong with my wife.

4. Make a list of what is possibly wrong with my church.

I love my wife and my church. I have committed and covenanted to be with them for my whole life and even beyond. The four things listed above are entirely irrelevant to the love, commitments, and covenants that sustain me.

I have long maintained that love and faith are the result of willful action - choice, not happenstance even when we are not in control of all the conditions of life that surround us. This should be obvious from my personality and philosophy I have shared for several years now on this blog. (See here, and here, for example).

I also know that I can't speak for anyone else (although I just spoke with my wife and she tends to agree and I haven't seen any list she's drawn up about me knowing full well that she could and it would be rather long).

My choices and experiences resulting from those choices have brought me here. To deny them would be to deny myself.

Others may have different choices and experiences. That's fine, even when I may not understand and the choices and experiences of those I love are sometimes painful to me. I can only be and do and allow others the same.

I just had to get that out. Thank you for your indulgence.