A Life Metaphor – My Regular Column Titled

Last week I solicited readers of The Edge of the Inside to suggest a title for a regular column I have been asked to write for the Tuttle Times on religion/spirituality. Those of you who left a suggestion let me say, “Thank you.” And, you offered some excellent suggestions. Some were especially tempting to use. In the end I stayed with the same title I selected for my blog/website. Here is the back story.

About ten years ago I spent ten months with a small group on what was described as a learning journey. We interacted with some leading Christian writers and thinkers along the way. We offered responses to a few pre-publication manuscripts that became best sellers. We learned from each other.

Spencer, our learning guide, suggested a spiritual exercise over lunch at our final meeting. He asked us to choose a life metaphor.  My spiritual habits comprised of the staples from my childhood and youth – read the Scriptures, pray, and engage in the life of a local church participating in its mission. Choose a life metaphor? Only Jesus did that. Bread. Water. Way. Truth. Life. Good Shepherd. Door. Vine.

I confess to stumbling over both the thought of this exercise as a spiritual one and with choosing a metaphor. I do not even remember what I selected. Impressionable I know.

Not long after this experience I read an article by Richard Rhor. We had met a few times. While visiting the Center for Action and Contemplation prior to a road trip, I picked up a publication, Radical Grace, in which Richard had written about, “the edge of the inside.”  I read and re-read the article. It became the inspiration for the title for this blog/website.

When I began to think about a title, the event in the pier came to my mind. Maybe I had chosen a life metaphor – the edge of the inside. I thought about the perspective from which I often write and there was not a better way to self-identify. It only made sense to choose my life metaphor as the title for the column.

Here are a few posts where I relate the process of my own understanding of the “edge of the inside.”

The Edge of the Inside Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

About the Author
Husband to Patty. Daddy to Kimberly and Tommie. Grandpa Doc to Cohen, Max, Fox, and Marlee. Pastor to Snow Hill Baptist Church. Graduate of Oklahoma Baptist University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Reading. Photography. Golf. Colorado. Jeeping. Friend. The views and opinions expressed here are my own and should not be construed as representing the corporate views of the church I pastor.

2 comments on “A Life Metaphor – My Regular Column Titled

  1. Adam, great to get your comment. I do have fond memories of that experience. Hope you are well.

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