Intro - Looking in the Mirror

For most of my life, I believed in God the same way you believe in gravity. I assumed He was real, but I didn’t really know what that meant. I never slowed down long enough to look in the mirror and ask what I actually believed or why.

Then one day a couple months ago, on the drive home from church, my ten-year-old son asked a question I was not ready for.

“Dad, how am I supposed to believe this?”

He was talking about God. About the idea that Someone could create the universe and still care about a kid in the backseat wondering where he fits in the world.

Then he asked, “Does God really know what I’m thinking?”

And I realized I had nothing. No real answer. Nothing beyond vague belief and half-formed thoughts. That moment rattled me more than I expected.

I grew up sort of believing in God, but I never understood the Bible. My memories of church as a kid were more about standing, sitting, kneeling, and trying not to laugh at my mom’s singing than about anything the priest said. I was baptized and confirmed at thirteen, then drifted.

Curious sometimes. Skeptical most of the time. Mostly unsure.

Later, I had experiences that pushed me to think more deeply. When my mom died from cancer, I was twenty six, and I found myself angry at a God I wasn’t sure I believed in. I read The Case for Christ in the months following. It didn’t flip a switch for me, but it made me think.

Years passed. Marriage. Kids. Work. Moving. Faith was faintly somewhere in the background, but it wasn’t really part of my life.

Then we moved to Florida and both my wife and I felt something pulling at us. A need for something deeper and steadier for our family. A need for community. A need for answers.

I bought a Bible. I listened to the Screwtape Letters. I watched Jesus of Nazareth. I started digging into videos on everything from creation to Paul to the garden of Gethsemane. Not because I suddenly felt a wave of faith, but because I was searching.

And then just last week at an industry event, the whole thing took another interesting turn.

One night I ended up at a dinner talking with a tech founder whose path to faith ran through Jordan Peterson’s Maps of Meaning. Brilliant guy. Thoughtful. Curious. Later in the conference I talked with someone I have known for a couple years but had never deeply connected with. Come to find out, he had spent years studying geology and archaeology and has come to believe in creationism. That the Earth is roughly 6000 years old. I wasn't convinced but it made me think that maybe the Bible is historically reliable in ways I had never considered. Another really smart, grounded guy asking big questions and having faith in things that don't seem possible.

Those conversations really affected me. They reminded me that all kinds of people are searching. Not just church people. Not just lifelong believers. People who think deeply. People who doubt. People who want answers but do not know where to start.

People like me. People like my son.

Which brings me to this new project. And why I'm making it public. As I mentioned, I've been searching for a couple years now and really learning a lot. But I still wasn't able to address my son's big questions with any kind of confidence. So I started really digging into the Bible and trying to figure it out. I thought I was going to publish another book...and maybe someday I will. But, for now, I'm just going to make this available for anyone that stumbles across it and is wondering some of the same things I've been wondering.

I am starting a blog series that walks through the Bible in simple, real language. No seminary vocabulary. No pressure. No “you need to believe this.” Just clarity. Just context. Just the kind of explanations I wish someone had given me years ago. Most people never engage with the Bible because it feels complicated or overwhelming. I felt that way too. This series is meant to bridge that gap.

I will break down each book of the Bible so it actually makes sense. What it is about. Why it matters. How it fits into the bigger story. And alongside that, I will tackle real questions that kids and adults wrestle with. Questions about faith, fear, purpose, doubt, identity, and hope.

This is not a commentary written by a scholar. I am not a pastor. I will never pretend to be an authority. I am just a guy trying to understand my faith and maybe help other families do the same.

The theme for this whole project is simple.

We all look in the mirror and wonder who we are and why we are here. The Bible helps answer that. And the cross brings those answers into focus. At least it now has for me...roughly halfway through my life.

So if you are curious, skeptical, unsure, or somewhere in the middle, this series might help. It is not about being right or perfect. It is about exploring. Learning. Asking real questions. Looking honestly at your own reflection and seeing if God might be speaking into it.

If this encourages someone to pick up a Bible, watch The Chosen, go to church for the first time in a while or even simply start a conversation with a loved one about their faith then it's accomplishing what I've intended. It's an invitation, certainly not a final destination.

The first step in this whole journey is understanding what the Bible actually is. Before we start walking through the books themselves, the next post will take a simple look at how the Bible is put together. The Old Testament. The New Testament. The flow of the story. The sections inside it. And why things I'm including like Spotlights and Transitions will help all of it make more sense.

Once the big picture is clear, we will do an overview of the Torah, the foundation of the entire story. And from there each book will have its place.

If you are curious, or skeptical, or just trying to understand what you believe, I hope this helps. The next post is now live and you can read it here.