In the Beginning…of my blog.
The past year has been a season of change, full of difficult decisions and unexpected turns. At the start of last year, I was working as a manager in a chain restaurant. The money was good, but the work itself was not fulfilling. Long days turned into long nights, early mornings came too quickly, and there was always the presence of corporate oversight keeping you on edge. At the same time, I was deeply involved in my church, serving as head of boards, helping lead charitable efforts, and playing a major role in the music program. Eventually, it all caught up to me. I found myself completely drained. My effort was still there, but it felt diminished. The spirit was willing, but the flesh was catching up. Something had to give.
The holiday season, while joyful, became a time of reckoning. I made the decision to step away from my position at the restaurant and take a leap of faith. Scripture says, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). At the time, I could not see what was ahead, but I trusted that God did. I prayed for direction and asked God to move in my life. He answered quickly. The longtime secretary at my church resigned, and I applied for the position. Initially, I was passed over, and someone else was hired. When that situation did not work out, I was offered the role and accepted it. Around that same time, a close friend recommended me to a well-known local restaurant, and I was hired there as well. Looking back, it is hard not to see God’s hand in all of it. He provided exactly what I needed, even when I could not see the path ahead.
Now I find myself in a new season, one defined by something I did not realize I was missing so deeply: time. I have time to invest more fully in ministry. Time to be present with friends and family. Time to work on my home, develop new skills, and grow in ways I had been putting off. Time to think. Time to reflect. Time to simply be. That realization is what led me to start this blog. There is a lot happening in my life that feels meaningful, unique, and worth sharing. Not because I think I have everything figured out, but because I believe there is value in the process. If something I write resonates with someone, teaches something, or offers encouragement, then it is worth putting out into the world. That is the heart behind this.
I created Unapologetically Affirmed as a place to share what I am learning, what I am experiencing, and what I believe. Life builds on itself. One experience leads to another, one lesson shapes the next. This is simply a space to be honest about that process as it unfolds. But before going any further, it is important to answer a basic question. What does it actually mean to be “unapologetically affirmed”? At its core, it means living with the conviction that you are known, understood, and affirmed by God, and not feeling the need to apologize for that truth.
Scripture is very clear about who we are as people. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” That is not a selective statement. It applies to everyone who has ever lived. Jeremiah goes even further when he writes, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). That is a hard truth, but it is an honest one. At the same time, Psalm 139 reminds us that God knows us completely. “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar… you are familiar with all my ways.” So we are both deeply flawed and fully known. That tension matters, because it leads directly to the Gospel.
We cannot earn righteousness. We cannot reach perfection on our own. No prophet, no saint, no person in history has ever come close to what would be required to stand before God on their own merit. That is why grace is not just important, it is essential. Ephesians 2:8-9 makes it clear. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith… it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.” If that is true, and I believe it is, then it should shape how we view ourselves and how we view others.
We were never meant to place ourselves above one another. Jesus addresses this directly when He says, “For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” (Matthew 23:12). And yet, so much of the conversation in the church today seems to revolve around identifying what others are doing wrong. There is this underlying assumption that if we are not actively calling out the faults of others, then we are somehow failing in our own faith. That way of thinking is difficult to reconcile with the words of Christ. In Matthew 7, Jesus says, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged… First take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” That does not mean truth does not matter. It does. It also does not mean we ignore sin or pretend it does not exist. What it does mean is that humility has to come first.
Our role is not to force transformation in others. Our role is to point people to Christ through how we live, how we speak, and how we love. We plant the seed. The Holy Spirit does the work of conviction and change. James puts it plainly. “There is one Lawgiver and Judge… who are you to judge your neighbor?” (James 4:12). This applies to everyone. It is easy to focus on certain groups or issues, but the reality is that all of us fall short in different ways. The call to humility and grace is not selective.
That leads into a more complicated conversation about the law, particularly in the Old Testament. Many of those laws were given to a specific people at a specific time. The Israelites were navigating survival, identity, and faith in a harsh and uncertain environment. Laws regarding cleanliness, diet, and social structure served practical purposes in addition to spiritual ones. Through Christ, the law is fulfilled. That does not mean it is meaningless, but it does mean we have to understand it through the lens of His life and teaching. When you read the Sermon on the Mount, you see clearly what Jesus emphasizes. Humility. Mercy. Integrity. Love for others. A transformed heart rather than outward appearance. And yet, those teachings are often not the ones people reach for when making arguments or drawing lines.
The reason is not complicated. True humility is hard. It removes any sense of superiority. It forces us to confront our own shortcomings before pointing to anyone else’s. But that is exactly where Christ calls us to live. This is also where the conversation often turns toward topics like sexual immorality, particularly passages in Leviticus and the writings of Paul. There is a long and ongoing discussion surrounding those texts, and I will not attempt to resolve all of it here. What I will say is this. Much of what we read has been shaped by translation, interpretation, and historical context. Those things matter more than we sometimes acknowledge.
It is also worth noting that Scripture does not explicitly address every modern situation in the way we might expect. The assumption that it does has led to decades of debate that, in many ways, have distracted from the larger mission of the Church. For me, the deeper realization was this. The sin I most needed to confront was not external. It was internal. Pride. Judgment. The desire to be right. The quiet belief that I could somehow achieve perfection if I just tried hard enough. That is not the Gospel.
Only God is perfect. And yet, He continues to work in us, shaping us over time, refining us in ways we often resist. I do not make that easy. I fail often. But He does not give up. That is why I choose to live unapologetically affirmed. Not because I have everything figured out, and not because I have reached some higher level of understanding, but because I trust that I am known, loved, and continually being transformed by God. To live this way is to hold two truths at the same time. We are flawed beyond our own ability to fix, and we are loved beyond what we deserve. That is not a contradiction. That is grace. And that is where this journey begins.
