I became a Christian on April Fools Day, 1971 when I was hijacked to a “Jesus People” gathering near my home in northern Ohio. At the time, I had been exploring Eastern religions, particularly Krishna consciousness and American Zen ala Alan Watts. My best friend, and drummer in the band I was playing in at the time, just shook his head and mumbled “Ten thousand singers in northern Ohio, and they’ve gotta pick on mine.” Not too long after, I decided to go to Bible College to learn about what I’d gotten myself into. I visited two, and picked the one in Michigan because the food was better. I was, and am, obsessed with experiencing and growing in the Presence of God moment by moment, and finding ways that the “good news” really can be good news to the poor. I also sought out ways to keep my faith mixed with a healthy dose of edgy folk, blues, and rock and roll. After two years, the Bible College decided I’d be happier at the Reformed school down the road.
Graduated with a degree in history, philosophy, and theology (indecision is a terrible thing). Became a builder. At least that’s how I paid the bills for some 30 yrs. Usually. Have been involved in neighborhood organizing, street ministry, occult exit counseling, non-profit housing, teaching, writing, and trying to make music that doesn’t drip with sweetness. (I really wanted to write “music that doesn’t suck”, but was afraid I might offend someone).
My relationship with Jesus Christ remains the central defining factor of my life. And I remain convinced that faith needs to form and inform all that we do, in every aspect of life. Far from being a personal private matter, it belongs on the street, in the coffeeshop, in the marketplace. Honest. Engaged. Dilletante. Meddling in simply everything.
That’s how I would want to be remembered. Trying with everything I am to be transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ as I work and live and love and think in the twenty-first century. And maybe making a difference.
stats and such
Male. 53 yrs old. Continually morphing arrangement of facial hair. Monogamous heterosexual and happy. Married 29 yrs. Three children. 2 daughters 24 and 19. One son age 6. One granddaughter 1 yr. Live in Michigan. BA. Active in teaching, mentoring, worship, and prayer. Am discovering more and more people who are hungry for REAL faith and Christian presence in the marketplace. Partnering with a Christian brother in a new insurance agency. Christian Reformed. Charismatic. Theologically conservative, but eclectic. Political affiliation-agnostic. Prone to engage on virtually any topic except sports, fashion, symbolic logic, mathematical theory, or the alleged superiority of the King James Version of the Bible. Subject to sudden outbursts of militant and abandoned worship, and/or prophetic utterance. May lapse into dreams (real or figurative), visions, or animated spiritual (but seldom religious) conversation without warning. Often spotted in the company of real people, nice people, weird people, rich people, poor people, social conservatives, poets, gays, liberals, disturbingly well-adjusted humanists and agnostics, shamans, mystics, prophets, radicals, and malcontents of various stripes. Beware. If agitated, will bite Pharisees of any variety. Passionate about Jesus Christ, family, friends, hearing God, justice and mercy, writing, reading, music, thinking, listening, conversation, and hats. In that order.
Oh yes. One last thing. Jewish tradition says that at one time it was the practice in Jerusalem at the end of The Days of Awe for hundreds of people to receive a light lit with Fire from the Altar, and then march or dance down the steps of the Temple and out into the streets. It was reported that the light moving from the Temple into the streets could be seen for miles.
Don...aka Firedancer
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