A new name, a new address

I love to write. I don’t do it often enough. So once upon a time (2005) I started a blog to push me to write more regularly, on blogspot with the title “Gregg’s Gambles”. Behind that alliterative title was a hope to take risks and be honest with some of my thoughts about life, leadership, and church. Re-discovering old friends from seminary already in the blogging world led to an awareness of the emerging church movement, and sparked some writing along those lines.

Then came the first surprise-I started interacting with Quaker bloggers and loving the community! Robin M., on What Canst Thou Say became a real flesh and blood friend because of our online connection. Martin Kelly’s Quaker Quaker, though, exposed me to so many more, and shaped my writing for quite awhile. I was most prolific in 2006 and 2007, including a shift away from blogspot to a hosted wordpress blog on my own domain at greggsgambles.com. (Thanks Jason!)

Alas, two things conspired to severely curtail my blogging. My kids getting older has meant the joy of more of their activities to be part of, at the expense of time to write. And Facebook hit the tipping point in our culture, and took over sharing the fun, relational aspects of my life.

So, in December 2010, when it was time to renew the domain name for Gregg’s Gambles, I realized I hadn’t posted since April. It didn’t seem responsible to pay for hosting a relatively dormant blog when a free wordpress blog would easily handle my infrequent posting. So, goodbye “Gregg’s Gambles”, and hello “Out of Doubt”.

I struggled to come up with a new name for the blog, but I think I like this one. Since the 5th grade, the Lord of the Rings has been a shaping literary experience. One of the most moving parts for me is the rescue of Minas Tirith, and the title comes from Eomer’s song, by the body of King Theoden, as he looks ahead with little hope at overwhelming odds:

Out of doubt, out of dark to the day’s rising
I came singing in the sun, sword unsheathing.
To hope’s end I rode and to heart’s breaking:
Now for wrath, now for ruin and a red nightfall!

The older I get, the more desperate the world looks to me. To move forward courageously despite the outlook is moving to me…and as dark as these lines are, they result in a dawning of a new day.

I choose to move forward, too…being as faithful as I am able to the leading of the One who calls me forward.