Welcome to The Life You've Always Had!
A quick introduction to me and what I hope to bring to this space.
Good morning! Or afternoon, evening, midnight snack phone hour, or whatever time you’re reading this. I’m glad you made it to The Life You’ve Always Had. While I likely know many of you reading this letter, I hope some of you are new, which means an introduction is in order.
I’m Ian, a 35-year-old husband, father of 2 boys, and a former minister turned 6th grade ELA teacher and freelance writer. At least, that’s the short introduction. I am all those things but to dig a little deeper; I’m a believer. Specifically, I believe in Jesus and the way of life Jesus calls us to live. But I’m also a believer in many other things. I believe my best, and your best, too, is yet to come. I believe in Russell Westbrook. I believe, most of all, that our world needs more people who are believers—those who are foolish or naive enough to look around us and see what could be. And I believe that what could be is not attained by searching for some fantastical life we’re meant to live because we’re already living.
If reading the title of this newsletter calls to mind titles of books you’ve seen in the Joel Osteen section of your local used bookstore, there’s a reason for that. I don’t believe in living your best life now or making every day a Friday. To paraphrase the great philosopher Nick Miller, “You get one life! This is the way the world works!” Most of those motivational ideas, in my experience, seem to rely on reinventing yourself. And while that can be fun, I don’t think it’s necessary. We are already living. There are already people in our lives who need us. They do not need some potentially excellent you; they need you. They need me. And I believe the world would be a bit better if we spent more time living the life we have instead of searching for more. I hope you’ll join me in exploring these lives we have.
As for this space, I plan to share a letter with you monthly. I do not pretend to be an expert, but if you are looking for a companion, I am more than up for that. My goal for this space is to provide an opportunity to reflect on how we live and pay attention to the goodness already around us. To offer, to myself as much as to anyone else, hope against this idea that we are not enough for the lives we already have. Mr. Rogers reminds us, “Nobody else can live the life you live.” So we may as well buckle up and prepare for the life we've always had. I hope you’ll join me.
Until next time,
Ian