Welcome to Imperfect Faith

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

— Romans 2:12

First of all I would just like to say, thank you for coming to see what this is all about. I know that is such a generic formality, but in this case it is also very sincere. I am only here, giving this blogging thing a try, because enough people thought that my writing would be good enough to share with others. If you are one of those people who encouraged me or you are here because you’re giving my blogs a shot; thank you so very much in both cases. That being said if you are looking for some scholarly, sophisticated, or grammatically correct page I am simply not your guy. I started out by “shoot-from-the-hip” style writing (if that’s even a thing) where thoughts go from my brain to my fingertips, and whatever comes out, minus a few touch-ups, is what you are going to read. I have no editor and I don’t go through writing draft after draft trying to perfect it. I like it to be raw and genuine, and after so much editing it simply loses the feeling that it is from the heart. So as the heading suggests I just wanted to take a moment to explain the who, what, and why of this page.

Who?

I’m Brandon McPherson. To be perfectly honest, after that period I had to pause for a little while to think about what to say next. It is always the most awkward thing trying to define yourself in the confines of a paragraph or two. I fully intend to go through my social media account and dive a little deeper into that subject, but for now I will give the glossy, polished image of who I am. I am a janitor. No, really, that’s not a joke. I am the lead custodian for my church, and for where I am in my journey – seeking a deeper relationship with Christ – I wouldn’t change that for the world. It has been one of the most amazing things to be charged with cleaning (and attempting to maintain) the “house of God,” and getting to listen to the Bible, Christian music, or sermons all day long. It is truly a blessing because before I was a janitor I was having a major identity crisis. I wont go too much into that here, but I was on a path to destruction and God put things in motion for me to start seeking the identity He has for me instead of the identity I was fumbling around trying to create myself. Really, the who part of this writing is the reason I picked the verse that I did.

Other than that the basic stats – which you were probably looking for before that long paragraph anyways – are that I am 34 and I have 4 kids. That being said the idea of my “shoot-from-the-hip” style of writing probably makes a lot more sense. What do I do for fun? I read, write, and work out pretty excessively. I use to be an avid gamer, but it was in reality more of an addiction. So now I dabble a little bit, but I am so very focused on bettering myself by understanding my relationship with Christ that things that draw away from the reality of what I can do in the world have put gaming on a very distant back burner.

What?

You are possibly wondering why I chose the name “Imperfect Faith,” or maybe you are not, but I am going to tell you anyway. The fact of the matter is that calling it imperfect really wasn’t even necessary because there is no such thing as perfect faith. I still chose that to be the name of this page, however, because I believe that we as Christians have spent generation after generation depicting ourselves as “better than the common rabble.” We have this generic persona as being “Bible thumper’s,” “holier-than-thou-art,” or in a very real truth sometimes, hypocrites. As far as the last one is concerned if you are a Christian, and you think you have perfect faith that lets you hold your nose higher than someone else; you are. I hope that within these pages it is clear that my faith in the fact that God exists is unfailing, but sometimes my faith in myself to do good works for him, or my ability to hold true to myself that his promises are always promises is as fallible as anyone else. We may be Christians, but we are still sinners, because we are human just the same as anyone who doesn’t believe. Which leads me to the why.

Why?

I am choosing to create this page for two major reasons. I believe that people need to see that there are Christians who are willing to not look perfect on paper. We need to represent our faith and our humanity as well. We need to admit when we’ve faltered. We fail to show the grace of God when we fail to show that we ourselves are not deserving of it either. We take away from the glory of God when we try to look perfect, because God is the only perfect being in all eternity. I truly would hope that if this page starts looking too polished, or if I don’t actually explain why I am sharing something, and how I can see my own flaws in what I am writing someone will call me out. Our imperfect journey of faith towards the one and perfect God is something that needs to be celebrated in order to let other people see that we are just as undeserving of his grace as they think they are. I think if we, as Christians, can find ways to honor those who feel undeserving and even find ways to lift them up higher than us; then we can truly represent what the heart of Jesus looks like.

The second is that as I write these blogs I am doing so – to some degree – to work out my own questions about who God is and what I need to do to continue to build my relationship with Him. Often times you will see me state that what I write is as much for me as for anyone else. Truly, the reality of it is that more often than not what I am writing is personal convictions that I feel others out there may also benefit from. So if I am coming off as “harsh” don’t worry, I’m being just as critical, if not more, of myself as I am of anyone else.

All of that being said, I wanted to make one more thing clear that I am sure some of you have heard me say before. I am not perfect. I do not believe that I am better than anyone, and I believe God has saved me from myself in so many situations specifically so that I could not judge any person. In no way shape or form do I think that anything I write can not be refuted. In fact I, in full humility, would encourage open dialogue on anything that I write. I think that it is through discussion of our ideas and concepts, and where they differ from one another, that we can hone our own understanding of who God is and what it is that He is calling each of us to do. We are all in this together so feel free to send me any criticism that may lead to a healthy dialogue.

Again, thank you so much for reading this my very first post.

-Brandon