#1

7 Posts in 7 Days:
In an effort to regain some blog momentum, we decided to do 7 posts in 7 days. Pathetic, marketing scheme? Of course. Should be fun.

Different Name
Through much cajoling, I have convinced Ginny to join me on this blog. She has been secretly blogging along the way, but desperately hoping no one finds her (her old blog). I do understand. However, we will now both be blogging at this site.

Of course, it will look different. But that is a good thing. I have assured her she can do whatever she wants, which includes recommending some of her weirdo bands. So, you (the reader) will have to be on the ball, cause maybe it’s me writing, maybe it’s her. You can do it.

Due to this fact, we’ve decided to change the name. The blog will still be located here, but will be called “the atypical life”. This seems to fit us a little better, and the post below describes a glimpse of why.


Home is not where the heart is.
Ginny & I are in the process of buying a home. If you know us, this is quite a big deal. We fancy ourselves to be happy renters. We have never owned a home, and have even spurned the idea for the most part. Observer’s have offered the following reasons for our home ownership avoidance: must not have enough money, they’ve got plans to move, they’ll buy when they have kids, or a desire to not “put roots down”, whatever that means. Well, although there may be hints of truth in all of the conjecture, these really are not the reasons we have opted to live in a borrowed home.

Our true reason usually goes unsaid for fear of sounding self-righteous, but now that we’re buying, I guess we feel the freedom to say what we have been thinking. It is always easier to go public with finger pointing when the target includes you.

I think we each have our own reasons that somehow comingle to formulate what we think as a couple- always dangerous to speak for your spouse…but here goes: Ginny would describe it as a strong desire to not be a woman who is typified by “talking about curtains”. The tightwad that I am, would point to America’s wasteful consumerism and propensity to buy things we cannot afford. I hate debt. Feels like a chokehold. Scripture has some things to say about debt as well (believe me, I have heard all of the many reasons why buying a house is o.k., I am doing it remember).

Although I shun the curtain explanation as a little feminine, I think Ginny better describes the way we approach the whole thing. I don’t want to be average. I don’t want to be typical. If I know that I am fallen and sinful, and believe me I am reminded often, then I think that my default is usually destructive. So, Ginny and I have always committed to being atypical. Not for different’s sake. But because we know that what comes easy to us must be questioned and examined, lest we follow our own lead and end up precisely where we do not want to go.

And this is why we do not want to buy a house.

However, as we have conversed on this subject, we have come to realize what many of you are already thinking….it is not about the house. It is about the heart. And we know our weak hearts enough to know that a step toward normal could end in submission. It is not our strength that requires things such as home purchases to be mulled over to this extent. It is our weakness.

Another factor, yet untold, for moving from our current rent house is one that you may not understand. It is where eliot lived: we prayed on our knees for him on this floor, we brought him through this door, he slept in this room. All of his life was in this house. The thought of leaving is a tough one.

It was facing this proposition that cemented the notion that all of this has nothing to do with a house. Whether it be buying a new one or having to leave one that holds what will forever be our greatest memories, the soul rises above all.

Thus, in our hearts may we battle as never before to be atypical, because Christ has a call on all of those he seeks that is anything but normal. And may we relish with wide smiles every memory that can never be taken away.