Dear Reader,

If you are still with me after an almost 6 month hiatus, then you deserve a gold star!

I have decided it is time to pick up the figurative pen and paper to start blogging again.  As the new year commences, it seems a fitting time to re-engage.

When I chose to take a hiatus in July, I felt emotionally beat-up, discouraged and confused, desperately crying out to see God move in some challenging circumstances.  I was running low on hope and no longer wanted to feel the vulnerability of walking through my disappointments with God publicly.  I also feared mis-perceptions; I was concerned about people coming to inaccurate conclusions about my journey.  My skin wasn’t tough enough to endure judgment.

Strangely, little in my circumstances has changed in these last 6 months and we’ve even had some compounding challenges added to the mix, but I feel ready to start blogging again.  My discouragement, confusion, and desperation has ebbed and flowed over this season but through it all, I have become more convinced of my call to engage the complexities openly.  

I am certainly not coming back to this platform with a pretty package tied neatly with a bow, but rather a continually messy, sometimes unattractive, multi-faceted intermingling of joy and pain, with far more pain than I’d like.  But I do have a renewed sense of purpose and strength, while also feeling released from some of the blogging pressures that seemed to have entangled me.

So here I am again — back with all my warts, so to speak. 

This time around, I hope to make my blog a little more conversational and interactive.  I am going to try to respond more consistently to blog comments and am also inviting questions.  There is now a form on the right-hand column that gives space to suggest a blog topic and I’ll be soliciting questions on Judson’s Facebook page.    Feel free to ask about anything — my faith, my grief, my parenting, my kids, my marriage, my book, my relationships, my views on certain topics, so on and so forth.  Sky’s the limit, as far as I’m concerned — I may not have anything profound to share, but I’m committed to being honest.  No Artificial Colors or Flavors is simply intended to be a real, authentic glimpse into one journey of life and faith.

Most importantly, I really want to express my gratitude to you.  If you’re reading this, it likely means you’ve somehow chosen to let me into your life through this blog.  I am honored.  Thank you.  And thank you also for electronically sticking with me.

Love,
Christina