I’m 34 and married with two children. I live on Vancouver Island in Campbell River, a beautiful town by the sea. Sometimes though I like to go somewhere completely different, like Sun Lakes, Washington, in the photo below.

Enjoying the sun, and the weeds, in Sun Lakes WA

I grew up in Chilliwack, B.C. Dad was a trucker and mom kept me and my little brother from killing ourselves, and each other. We lived in the city, then moved to the country to live on a hobby farm on the mountainside. It was pretty idyllic, although it didn’t seem that way when I had to chop wood in winter or sit in the dark for days when the power went out.

We were a Christian family, and I accepted the faith at a young age. Faith helped define me and I took on more responsibilities in the church, slaying monsters until 2007, when I finally had more questions than anyone could answer.

As Nietzsche said, “He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”

When I felt I was on the verge of becoming a monster myself, I decided to walk away from the unsatisfying, circular answers which make up all Christian apologetics.

Where does that leave me? I don’t know. But I’ve dropped my fundamentalist Christian baggage and I’m feeling better about life than I ever have before.

I chose the name “Burned Alive” for my old blog because I thought it represented what it was like to be on fire with the Holy Spirit, a way of describing how I thought God guided every aspect of my life. But I’ve dropped the name from my blog because I’ve moved on. I am where I am, and I am who I am.

Bits and pieces of my story may come out here now and then, and maybe someday I’ll share the whole thing.

But faith does not define me.

I do.