GREETINGS AND SALUTATIONS!

I'M GLAD YOU took the time to stop by my blog, A Red State Mystic. When not blogging, I go by the name Andy, after the disciple of Christ found in the Gospels. I was raised in the corn and bean fields of north-west central Indiana, graduated from high school, and took a "year-off" after graduation to wait tables in a mid-level Mexican Restaurant. Now, I am a student at one of the best liberal-arts colleges in the south, Milligan College, which is situated in the beautiful mountains of Northeast Tennessee. Last Summer, I was awarded the Lee B. Ledford scholarship for undergraduate research for work in the forthcoming book, Why Churches Worship The Way They Do: A History of Worship in the Stone-Campbell Movement. I was paid to read and spend all day in a library, a true joy for a self-proclaimed-bibliophile.

I HAVE BEEN blogging since the summer between my freshmen and sophomore years in High School (2001). If you want to go back in the archives and read "the old Andy" before God changed my life in November 2002, feel free to do so. In fact, my blog's user name is a constant reminder and vestige of my not-so-former life, emperor a f.  Originally, I began this blog with friends, it was a way to keep in touch with them, but over time, it has evolved into something completely different. No longer did I write about mundane matters of life, but sat down to write something substantive. As for the issue of whether it is or not I am unsure, but I hope it is.

WHY DID I choose the name "A Red State Mystic?" For one I am conservative in my theology and somewhat conservative in my politics (death penalty and fiscal policies aside), hence the Red State. My theology is "Christocentric Mysticism" in the strains of St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and Madame Guyon. Christ is the center of all life and we only find that life when we give up our will to Him, who then lives in and through us. I use this term to denote that there is a living God. This living God we can have experience with in worship, Christian meditation upon scriptures and contemplation of His love and being. As for the issue of whether or not I am truly a Mystic is for God to decide -- I just hope that the writings here inspire you to "taste and see that the Lord is good. (Ps. 34:8)"

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