
Preoccupied with buts
But can undo and but can do.
One erases the other embraces.
I can tell my story and dismiss it all.
I can tell my story and envision a call.
Such as: “I am sorry but…” and I excuse all I did.
Or, any other such erasure.
Quite the skill of undoing.
Oh, to embrace the better but.
“I am sorry but I will apologize and change.”
Or, “I was wrong, but I choose to learn and grow.”
It is all in the use of the but.
I can be preoccupied with buts, as is true for many people I have known.
I can sit on my but.
Or, I can get off my but and use a better but.
The but to do better versus the but to excuse.
The but to embrace rather than the but to erase.
I want to be preoccupied with the better buts.
11/08/2018
Richard L. Brewer
Published by sparedbygrace@yahoo.com
I am Richard Brewer—a Christ-follower, psychologist, husband, father, grandfather (Papa) sometimes writer, and lifelong student of people.
For much of my professional life, I've had the privilege of sitting with people as they wrestle with some of life's most difficult questions—questions about faith, suffering, grief, relationships, identity, failure, hope, and what it means to live well.
Those conversations have changed the way I see people and the way I understand my own faith. They have taught me that life is rarely as simple as our explanations of it, that people are almost always more complicated than they appear, and that sometimes the wisest response to a difficult question is to empathize and to keep asking better questions.
I am a committed Christ-follower, but I am not interested in pretending that Christianity eliminates mystery or that faith means having an answer for everything. Faith invites us to pursue truth honestly, to think deeply, to acknowledge what we do not know, and ultimately to trust the God we do know.
Mediocre Meanderings is where I explore some of those questions.
I write about faith and psychology, grief and suffering, leadership and relationships, aging and ordinary life—and occasionally whatever else catches my attention along the way.
I do not write from the perspective of someone who has figured life out. I write as someone who has lived enough of it to know that I have not.
These are my thoughts, questions, observations, and occasional attempts at wisdom. Take what is useful. Challenge what is not. And, if you would like, meander along with me.
View all posts by sparedbygrace@yahoo.com