On August 18, 2019 I wrote my first column for the Valdosta Daily Times. The editorial staff there have been very encouraging and great to work with, and I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to work with them. This is just a little behind-the-scenes to why I have embarked on that journey.
It’s a journey, for sure. All writing is. Especially since I’ve become a financial advisor. Regulations are heavy on what I can and can’t say, so everything I write has to be approved from the mother ship. Which is its own obstacle along with distractions and responsibilities and, you know, real life.
But the rewards far outweigh. I get to use the concrete life I live as examples and material for the thinking I like to do, which, if you’re new here, is definitely more philosophical and contrarian. I am in finance, and I am thankful for capitalism, and I agree with it as good economic theory, but I do not believe in capitalism. My faith is placed elsewhere. (I talk about God on this website a lot.)
So, very often, my column reads contrarian, mainly because of this. I meet with clients everyday who live in the “real world”, and come to me for advice financially. I climb in their skin as much as I can and empathize, and from there start problem-solving. More often than not, the solution they really need is deeper than an investment strategy. It’s always tied up in the human heart—who can understand it? Psychology and theology is more useful than a financial education when it comes to helping people identify the purpose for their lives, their finances, and their gifts and talents.
The joy of writing the column, for me, is that it allows me to speak truth as I’ve learned it into concrete situations, quickly (less than 600 words), to people who could be doing something else. That’s motive enough.
But my “why” is: I believe in the power of writing because I believe God is inside all Truth, that all Truth is a sign-post to Him, and that the world is a better place where God’s Truth is allowed to thrive. Secondly, I believe culture is changed not by culture wars (no matter what the Southern Baptist Convention tells us), worldview debates (think: The Truth Project from Focus on the Family), or academic treatises (you know, the stuff “smart” people brag about reading), but by the creation of MORE culture (the right kind, the kind you think is True). (I would refer you To Change the World by James Davison Hunter. And Andy Crouch’s Culture Making.)
to say that again, I believe our culture needs reforming and redeeming (due to the Fall), and I believe God has called me to co-create alongside Him (Gen 1:28 and the Biblical Theology of Cultural Mandate), so writing is not only opportunity to overtly speak Truth (you know, do some worldview debating or something), but mainly, an opportunity to create something that is a big-donkey sign-post, a cultural artifact that appeals to people as a real, physical object in our real world.
Whether my column appeals to people with a strong, clear voice is up to me and the craft. Whether it performs some function of change and reform is up to the Maker.
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As an admin note, I’m going to start publishing all of them on my blog so they are able to reach the following here. Thank you to VDT for allowing me to publish outside their paywall.