#01 New Assignments Made Clear
My new newsletter and its mission
Jeremiah 29:11-13 ESV
«For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.
You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.»
For those of you whom have been with me since the beginning and to the new subscribers of which their have been many these last few months. I’ve been delivering a variety of essays, journal entries, poems and other creative content under the title of “Shashue Monrauch” to your inboxes. ‘Shashue Monrauch’ is a pseudonym from which I write to represent my thoughts, feelings and actions minus ego and pride…or rather with minimal ego and pride (a work in progress). I’ve done better with some pieces than others. But the goal has been to explore my thoughts, actions and understanding the “why” of these thoughts. I didn’t want to have a specific or declarative newsletter title, because, I didn’t want my creative expressions to be pigeonholed into an unsustainable niche of which I would later lose interest (it’s happened to me before) or be incapable of delving into other independent or cross-sectional topics that may be on my mind.
However, over these last few months following lots of prayer, meditation and conversation through the Holy Spirit with God, my assignment for this season has become a bit more understood. Let me be clear, the assignment is not a (new) newsletter. The assignment is learning to write in a way that connects with others while bringing others and more importantly me closer to God.
Think of this next chapter and assignment as one of many to come, each serving as a only one step towards whatever He has planned for me over the long run and in the end. Whatever it may be, I still don’t know, and that’s OK, I’m just following his lead, trusting and believing that He knows best what he wants for me.
What is the mission of my newsletter
The goal of my newsletter is to affirm, encourage and inspire newcomers to the christian faith.
As a Gen Xer or older (a product of the south Bronx, in March of 1973), we might even consider ourselves at times to be “late-comers” to the christian faith. Although I now know, we are never too late for seeking and finding Jesus Christ’s love and grace.
When we first discover the faith and begin to walk in the path of our Lord and Savior Jesus, we quickly learn there are factions upon factions built upon layers of varying theologies and doctrines.
You have Catholics, Protestants, Baptists, Eastern Orthodoxy and all the different legal structures from which they are built upon, just to name a few.
What is the difference I wondered?
Additionally there are “the others”, referred to by most Christians as heretical cults, JW, latter day saints and a few others with more obscure doctrines.
Dig deep enough and you’ll find some of the criticisms being hurled from one side to the other in many cases vary from truth, incomplete truths to outright false.
Zoom out even further and wide enough on the subject of religion and christian theology and you’ll also find sects like new-age and new thought. These religions include prominent bits of Christian theology in their loosely composed doctrine that may at first glance appear to be the least disruptive and most accommodating to the norms of modern culture and society. Easy to get on board with, if you will. Many Christians refer to this group as Cultural Christians or sometimes cafeteria Christians. In most cases where I’ve seen these labels used, I’m not sure if it’s truly meant as a slur or a slight. But I’ve used them in the past because I’ve thought they were descriptive of the folks in my social sphere that identified with their beliefs.
I myself have subscribed to parts of these belief systems unwittingly for the majority of my adult life.
Philosophies similar to these for example;
Due unto others as you would want done onto you.
Keep a positive mindset and focus on the positives of your life and positive things will happen in your life.
I am spiritual but not religious
Success and abundance are the result of successfully flowing with the energies of the “universe”
I am the creator of my own destiny. I get what I deserve because it’s all of my own doing, both the good and the bad outcomes.
Throw in a few well known bible passages (usually out of context) around these beliefs and you’ve become a member knowingly or otherwise.
On the surface, you may see nothing wrong with these, because there is a lot of truth contained in them. But as you get further into your Christian journey, you’ll come to learn otherwise and how they subtly and seductively further separate us from God, our creator and our true purpose in this life.
Exploring the tip of the iceberg
Having done just enough research to encounter all of these different rabbit holes of “Christianity”…and you are left wondering and confused as to which is right, which are wrong and even outright dangerous to the soul.
Not too long after starting my Christian walk, I learned that I had to do my own research and figure out my path, the one I thought was the right path.
I could not simply find and identify one leader in the faith or one institution of Christianity amongst which there are many, thousands upon thousands just here in the U.S. alone.
I quickly learned that I couldn’t just claim one of these pre-existing labels and groups.
Which of these was I supposed to ascribe to and claim to be my religion?
This newsletter will document that journey and my process in hopes others coming to this same point from which I began, to find some value, a source of encouragement and inspiration to move forward with a pure heart and a singular goal, getting closer to God, the creator of all things, the first and only I AM, the Alpha and the Omega.
My Life in the World
I’ll describe briefly the world that I came from prior to getting started on this Christian path.
I joined the military right after high school. About six years active and another 2 in reserves.
From there I worked in “Office Space” America, holding a variety of positions that kept me straddled between technology and business, with one foot on each “career” track if you will for the next 30 years.
By the age of twenty two, I was married, divorced, had three children by two different women, but not in that order, in fact as much out of order as traditions typically demanded.
What that looked like in my day to day life is that I was usually co-parenting. There would be short seasons where one child and mom wasn’t getting along (think teenage years), so to live with pops for a while they would. However, for the most part, a mix of playing dad one day during the week and or on the weekends and living life as a bachelor, socializing, working and grinding out a living to support the life I was living.
In a traditional forty hour work week, the first thirty hours supported uncle sam and my family which were more often than not in a different state or even country from where I was living and working.
Leaving the remaining 5-10 hours of the work week for me to do with as I needed to accomplish whatever I may have thought I needed or was trying to accomplish at the time.
While the work weeks were more often 60-80 hours than they were 40, the ratios of this mode remained the same and these are what my weeks, months and years looked like for 20-25 years of my adult life.
As you could imagine, I had to keep that hamster wheel running at max speed most of the time else, responsibilities and obligations would not be met and lives and lifestyles would quickly begin to fall apart.
Under conditions such as these, there was no time for God, religion or any other seemingly abstract endeavor that weren’t producing returns in the short term. A high time preference lifestyle wasn’t a philosophy, but my actuality for almost three decades.
My goals for this newsletter
The goals at this moment are three-fold.
The first of which is to document my process, state of mind, and rationale as I walk this Christian walk in 2025 and beyond. This newsletter will serve as an artifact of my life for my family and friends to read should they have a desire to understand me more completely.
The second goal is personal, mental and spiritual self-therapy. Writing helps me make sense of the world around me thereby informing me so that I gain the understanding I need so that I may best maneuver through it, especially in these current trying times that society and culture seem to be on a committed path of decay and self-destruction.
Last but not least is to find others that understand, resonate with, are on a similar journey with similar goals, in the hopes that we can move forward as a group instead of on our own and separated from each other.
"If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."
With this assignment, I want to go far.
So, what's next?
First things first, I am currently praying on and asking God for guidance on selecting a name for this new assignment which I am barking upon and will chronicle His work through me. My intuitions regarding this newsletter have had these two words in them since the beginning (about three months now) Peace and Pilgrim. Not necessarily the words themselves, but what they represent.
This life is a brief pilgrimage in the broad scheme of things, the ultimate goal is our destination in the eternal afterlife.
The everliving and lasting peace of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit that covers us as we move through the chaos of this life.
With that said I’ve solicited the assistance of my AI model to generate a list of potentials for the project and endeavor as described in this article.
May I ask is that you take a minutes to answer one question (5 seconds more of your time) and select one that you think would be most fitting.
Click here to take the newsletter title survey.
A message to other Substack Creators
If you plan to or presently fall in this category of readers and are on a similar path, please reply to this post with a link to your substack. I want to walk beside you in solidarity, support you and also help you get your work out to the masses.
If you’ve made it this far, I thank you for your time and attention, the two most valuable assets we have in this life, so it means more to me than I can express in mere words. 💙🤗 may your days be filled with blessings and peace.
Forget not to take the quick one question survey, by clicking the button below.
To my current supporters, thank you for your early encouragement. Let’s keep creating together! Cheers to many more inspiring cups of fulfilling creations.
That is all and once again thank you for reading.
Shashue Monrauch
God, bless this venture of Shashue. Render it wholly an adventure with you. Get glory to Yourself, God through SHashue.