There is a certain presumption in writing a blog. An arrogance perhaps in believing that you have something to say and that anyone else has an interest in reading it. I confess to having a reluctance to share my thoughts, as the process is more self-revelatory than I normally choose or am able to be in face-to-face relationships. There is an anonymity in being online, as even as you may become familiar with me I am unaware of the incursion. Certainly I have other interests, topics that interest me, opinions that I’m confident are right. However I feel a calling to share on the topic of faith that I do not feel regarding any other topic. I have resisted for some time, but the calling has persisted. I was once told by a judge that I had a “gift for the obvious”. So in that context, please forgive any lack of depth or superficiality in my walk of faith. The question of who I am is an incomplete inquiry. Like a news story, the question and the answer must reveal who, what, when, where, and how. That being said, let me proceed with what may seem on some level an obituary, as it captures a snapshot of myself in time, accentuating the positive and minimizing, if not eliminating, the negative.
My name is Warren Smith. I’m 61 years old1, a native of San Diego who has recently retired after 32 years with the San Diego courts to the high desert community of Hemet, California. My life has been one of challenges and opportunities, blessings and cursings, and through it all I am grateful to the Lord for His faithfulness to me. I attended Berean Bible College for two years prior to marrying the love of my life. The Lord blessed us with three children, but our marriage sadly ended after 25 years. As with all things in my life, I believe this was purposed by God and I daily seek His guidance and will in walking rightly after Him. Like my father before me and my son after me, I live my life on the spectrum. By this I mean that autism, a spectrum disorder, has been a part of each of our lives. This manifests in me as strong tendencies toward obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and Tourette’s syndrome. This doesn’t mean that I blurt out obscenities in meetings (tempted though I’ve been), but rather that when a thought pops into my head there is a compulsion, sometimes irresistible (especially if it is funny), to express it. Sadly, this is often regardless of the appropriateness or the political correctness of the interjection. Hence the prudence in a blog rather than a podcast.
In naming this blog, I have drawn from David’s Psalm 63. Not simply because I am in physically in the high desert where the temperature has been in excess of 100 degrees for 5 of the last 7 days, but because we of God are all in a dry and thirsty land where all souls are thirsting for living water. In the creation of this blog I was required to create a user ID and for this I have chosen Desertvessel. As a Christian, as a parent, and as a person I am deeply flawed. Yet as I learn more of myself in my faith journey, I am constantly buoyed by a loving God who is faithfully performing an ongoing work of creation. With the Lord’s mercy he reveals to my heart and mind each day affirmations of His faithfulness and love. As he fills my cracked vessel He has put it on my heart to share the spillage that overflows and seeps from the cracks.
Although I feel called to the ministry, it is not to pastor or evangelize. I don’t possess those gifts and my unclean hands would cause non-believers to blaspheme were I to seek them. Instead the Lord has put it on my heart to provide a ministry of helps – to share with those who are also following Jesus. My hope and my prayer is that I might be a resource to those who are gifted far beyond me. For that reason, as I share poems and songs that have been placed on my heart I give them freely to those who might make use of them to further the cause of Christ. It is my continual prayer that I might sow, that others may harvest.
Yours in Christ,
Warren
In a dry and thirsty land 