Ryan Hayden

I have before me a sheet of glass, metal and silicon which cost me nearly $1,000.   As I purchased it, I had all kinds of doubts running through my mind: Is this a bit much? Do I really need this? Could I not make do with something less expensive? I already have a MacBook Pro, and an old iPad, what good will this thing do? Due to its very high price and seemingly minor difference between other tools, this iPad felt like the most extravagant and ridiculous thing I had ever purchased.  But having used it now in my particular craft(s), all of those doubts now feel distant. Benjamin Franklin wrote that the best investment a man can make is in the tools of his trade.   I am a writer, a thinker, a man whose life is chained to a calendar but who also needs to read constantly.  My work involves study, brainstorming, recording audio, and preparing to present what I’ve learned over and over (and over) again.   Many a man has mowed a lawn with a push mower....

I have decided to start writing again. By which I mean I’ve decided to resume a certain kind of writing.  I’ve decided that my positions need a voice, and because no one else I know is giving a voice to my ideas, I might as well pipe up. I’ve decided to write again for two basic reasons:  First, because I believe the positions I’ve come to are true and good and beautiful, and  Second, because I believe that things that are true and good and beautiful should not be placed under a bushel, but raised up on a candlestick. It was a wise man who once said, “don’t just do something - stand there.”  I have been “doing” my beliefs about ministry, faith, family, business and politics for a long time now and I’ve just decided I better start standing here. And “here”, in most cases, is the uncomfortable middle.   It’s an uncomfortable position because the people to both my right and left on any issue like to imagine that to take one step away from their radical spot is...