Hello, I’m Bob. And I’m a preacher’s kid.

Sounds like introducing myself to a Twelve Step program, and truth be told, there a lot of us preacher’s kids who could use one.  I suppose, it follows that all ears in such a PKs Anonymous meeting would be especially attuned to the second step, that we “Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.”

There a couple reasons for that. First, it is often the existence of that Power — or at least the one we were taught to accept — that at some point became the question we had to answer for ourselves. The time came when we could no longer ride through life on our parents’ spiritual aprons, but had find our own experience and understanding of the Divine.

And second, of course, there may be more than a few who just plain blame that Power (shall we just say, “God?”) for not living up to the tidy theological frameworks of our religious upbringings.

For those so burdened, that third step — making “a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him” is tough. Get past that one, though (i.e. reach that understanding bit), and steps four, five, six and seven — making a moral inventory, admitting our wrongs to God and others, asking God to remove our character defects and shortcomings — follow like dominoes.

Logically, then, the rest of the steps should come right along, right? Make amends to those we’ve hurt? Check. Keep an up-to-date inventory of new wrongs and own them? Check. Improve the quality of our contact with God through prayer/meditation? Roger that. And then share the resulting “spiritual awakening” with others?

Sure. That’s what this blog is for.

It all seems so logical. But that’s not how human beings and their faith journeys roll. Faith is a rollercoaster for most of us, punctuated by the thrills of perceived blessings and the tumbles of personal failures.

We stumble over our built-in hypocrisies just a heartbeat removed from pleasantly surprising ourselves by that truly selfless, charitable act. One day the heavens are open, a cosmic flower in bloom; the next we are convinced we live under an unyielding sky, trapped within a random and mindless, even accidental universe.

That, too, is what this blog is about.

So, hang on, friends, believers, doubters, saints and sinners. Our journey of faith is about to begin. The landscape: popular culture and scriptures; heroes and villains; celebrities and everyday folk; gritty reality and our dreams, taking form in the arts.

All of these things have something to show us.