Caveman Celebrates 5 Year Blogiversary Today

Where can I go from your Spirit?  Where can I flee from your presence? ~ Psalm 139:7

On this day, five years ago, I emerged from the cave and began my writing journey.  I was called out.  No longer could I hide.  That's me in the top photograph from a Halloween party.  I blocked out the right side of the picture to hide the Mrs. and protect her identity.  That keeps me out of the "dog house" pictured in the second photo.  Maybe you're wondering, why does this guy call himself a caveman?  Or, why does he write every day?  Here's my story...

I shunned writing.  Reading was a close second.  My high school English teacher asked us to bring in something we liked to read.  This is going to be fun, I thought.  I popped in the next day with a cereal box.  My classmates laughed.  Then, Mr. Nelson instructed the class to write a paper about why we enjoyed our particular genre.  I went home and got busy.  A writer was born.  It didn't matter that my subject matter was scant.  I had all the ingredients I needed to crank out my assignment.  And yes, Mikey liked it.  My teacher liked it, too.  He gave me an A.  It was a good day.  Then a dark cloud appeared on the horizon.  Only one of my classmates knew about it.  I hid the truth from everyone else.  My parents were divorcing.  Our family was falling apart.  On the inside I was seething.  On the outside I was the happy kid, Mikey, who liked his Life cereal.

I hid my demons well.  When I fell in love, I hit another roadblock.  I thought, How am I going to make it through my marriage classes with all my anger issues? 

"Don't worry," my sister said.  "I know someone who will help."  I passed.  The real test came years later when a visitor came to our church.  "Your Bible is like a mirror," he said.  "All you have to do is open it up and see yourself in all the characters.  God put them there to help you see yourself."

I took the bait.  Yep.  I went home and said a prayer to the Holy Spirit to show me who I am in God's eyes.  Wham! he showed me.  The pathetic character I found couldn't have been any worse.  I was the naked caveman possessed by multiple demons in Luke's story, chapter 8, verses 26-40.  No mask is strong enough, no cave large enough, to hide who you are from God.  The jig is up, I thought.  I'm a caveman!  I walked around with slumped shoulders for weeks.  Then I found the solution one day when I returned for a closer look at my alter ego.  Jesus was the solution.  He was the one who exorcised the demons in Luke's story.  He called the man out of his cave and granted him freedom.  Jesus is responsible for all that I am today.  When he called me out of my cave five years ago, he nudged me to write – not about cereal boxes, but about all the good he is doing.  Here is what verse 39 said in my Bible... Return to thy house, and tell how great things God hath done to thee. And he went through the whole city, publishing how great things Jesus had done to him.

What's next?  My first novel, "The Caveman in the Mirror,"  will be birthed in 2015.  Mikey likes it.  I hope you do, too.  Thank you for visiting today on my 5 year Blogiversary.  You're invited to leave your comments below.