Hiatus: Family and Forming of Thoughts

A recent conversation catching up with a friend led me to start talking about my work here on the blog. That was when I realized that it has been several months since publishing anything. It came to me that I am in the midst of a FIRE of Faith hiatus, which will likely continue.

It really hasn’t felt that long for me. I have still been thinking and jotting down thoughts. There have been a lot of thoughts. The issue for you as reader is the difference between unfinished notes and your readership is that little “Publish” button in the corner of my screen (and the fact that many ideas hide in the notes app on my phone for years at a time).

Hiatus Update

Those things said, I thought I would do a post to explain why the site has been left untouched and why it will likely remain untouched for a bit longer. In summary, the hiatus is one of family and forming thoughts.

Family

Things have been busy here in our household. We are happy to share that there is a new baby in the family! The past few months have been spent in anticipation and preparation for a new child to be born. Now we are glad to be adjusting to the life of balancing two children. While not an impossible task, its been an adjustment for the older one in learning she cannot demand attention at will any more.

Forming Thoughts

While the house has been busy with activity, so has my mind!

A similar thing happened planning for baby #1. I went into dad-mode and dove into the finances thinking, “What does it take financially to raise a family?”

Now there is a similar question with a twist that I am trying to wrap my brain around. It is not just what does it take, but rather, “How do we financially raise a family with the best chances of knowing God for eternity?”

This question has my ideas circulating so fast that I find them changing and increasing in nuance before I have the chance to articulate them to you.

Prudent Pause

Therefore, I felt it prudent to avoid hitting “Publish” on new ideas that are at risk of fundamentally changing within weeks or months.

Words are real. They have real impact. I would hate to send out real words that impact another’s perceptions of their faith or their finances later to find that I don’t believe them. After hiatus, I’ll try to remember to add notes to the previous articles if I no longer agree with them.

Love of Learning

Learning is exciting and a great joy.

Whenever I come across an idea that I have not heard or considered, it is an opportunity to wring it out for all it’s worth. It is a chance to absorb what there is to learn from it and leave the rest behind. I feel that it is good to always be open to additional details that could tilt our perspectives even only a degree. After all, a small angle shift up close can put you in an extremely different location way down the road.

Recently I have begun thinking about and reading some new ideas, and I have a feeling that they will shift the focus and meaning of this blog as a work considerably.

This blog was intended to be a documentation of my learning and thinking out loud. This works when ideas come at a manageable rate. The perceptions change subtly – research, think, write, repeat – like a tug boat nudging a ship. But when that ship might need to take a harder turn, we might not be able to make a really big shift without a total stop. In the coming months, I will hopefully slow down to read and think more.

In preparation for a shifting mindset, this is the stop.

My Thoughts and Where They Might Go

My thoughts are first and foremost with my family. It is important to me to get these concepts right. I hope to make intentional choices that I stand by, live them out, and teach them to my children – for their sanctity and hopefully mine.

Here is a brief hint as to the things I am reflecting on, because I feel bad if you have read this far and I give you nothing but anticipation of vague potential changes.

Priority of Faith over Finance

In the past, some of my thoughts operate under the idea that we should make “smart” financial decisions so that we can do more good living as Christians. No doubt, this can be good; yet, I have lately been pulled into realizing that living Christianity is actually so integral to how we interact with the world that I had the order backwards.

Rather than good financial practices to boost a life of faith, it means living a life of faith that will impact our financial life.

A Faith on FIRE might be better than a FIRE of Faith. (That URL was probably taken anyways…)

This priority shift emphasizes the faith in God and removes the word “smart”. Often, “smart” decisions in the eyes of the world may tempt us to vice.

I believe that some of this distinction is what actually inspired this blog in the first place – a recognition that FI would not be worth anything if it did not have Faith. The new challenge is this, although FI needs to be altered and viewed by Faith in order to work for a Christian, Faith most certainly does not need FI.

Going Forward

These thoughts are not entirely new here at aFIREofFaith. This priority of “seeking first the Kingdom” can be seen even in my third post on the Simplest Path to Retirement being that which is abandoned totally to God in the form of a religious vocation.

Where we go forward is to reflect more on how this reality spills into our daily lives. Virtues and evangelical counsels (especially poverty) are not only for religious but for us all. How are they to be lived?

Living as a Christian might mean living poorer than you or I would like. Maybe not for all, but maybe for more of the population than we would otherwise think. It could also mean removing ourselves from areas of society that are no longer suited for virtuous living.

On that note, I have probably said more than I can commit to already. So many of my thoughts on this are not formed and concrete enough to “Publish”. I’ll have to do some more reading, thinking, and praying.

I will hopefully be back soon with new ideas that I can share and stand by!

In the meantime: pray for me and for our world!

Peace,

Andrew