Out of Many, One

E Pluribus, Unum

Hey there, neighbor!

I’m Matthew Chisolm, a millennial who loathes social media and loves U.S. history. I constantly feel like I’m failing forward. Learning from others and sharing my learning is my favorite. The story of the Good Samaritan teaches my favorite lesson of all: being a neighbor isn’t about being close to someone it’s about being human with everyone. To love my neighbor, I want to start Sowing Hope.

Photo by Jametlene Reskp on Unsplash

Why now?

Back to that failing forward comment, I know learning is a journey; it’s one where we can run ahead or stumble through, but it’s always worth moving forward. That’s why I’m here. I see a lot of good going on in our world and my community today, but many are still focused on the doom and gloom. I also feel the negativity and attacks make many of my neighbors’ lives worse. Finally, I’m burdened by the spread of false information and feel truth only wins if it’s loud.

I tell my niece when something needs to be done, I want her to practice saying “I can!” Whether I stumble forward like a toddler or run ahead like Usain Bolt, this is me saying “I can!” to bring some hope and encouragement to my neighbors.

I hope my journey shows that you can, too.

Community-minded

As you consider following my writing, I want you to know the kind of community I’m hoping to build. I am opinionated, kind, and open-minded; I want the community opinionated, kind, and open-minded. I think these characteristics help me live out my values of compassion in heart, love through action, and kindness out loud (or…in text, I guess).

Photo by Nina Strehl on Unsplash

If that sounds like something you’d like in your life, you can subscribe to keep up with my new posts. I aim to post each Monday and want to keep all those posts freely available to anyone who’s interested. You can use the button below to subscribe if I’ve earned your interest.

For anyone who’s interested in helping keep those posts free, a paid subscription supports my work sowing hope and gives you more access to the community. This will include possible extra posts like Q&A posts, the ability to comment with other paid supporters and me, plus the ability to give me feedback on what the Sowing Hope community grows into. If you decide to support me with a paid subscription, I appreciate it.

Either way, I’m just thankful you are taking the time to read my thoughts.

What to expect

• Again, I’m opinionated, kind, and open-minded. You will know how I view the topics I cover, I will avoid being mean to others, and my opinion will change if facts show my thoughts were wrong or incomplete.

• I will send out free posts each Monday.

• Free posts will start with news, events, or organizations I’m paying attention to at the moment. I’ll prioritize sowing hope when sharing these. 😁

• My current optimism is rooted in my realism and my faith. If it’s needed for the topic, I may occasionally include less than hopeful parts of stories or disclose how my faith informs my perspective.

• At the end of each free post, I will share 1-3 things that are giving me joy, lately. These might be songs, quotes, stories, poems, pictures…anything that brought me enjoyment and I think you might like.

• Paid posts will be less regular at about 1-2 posts per month. These might be updates on my journey, poems I’m writing, Q&A, or one of your suggestions.

Disclaimers

If you have made it this far, thank you so much again for being here! I feel being transparent is important to building trust, and a community without trust is bankrupt. As a result, I want to take a moment to share some of my views, so we can start building that trust.

• I’m an Evangelical Christian. I want those of other faiths and without faith to feel welcome here. Still, I feel you should know my faith since it may come up.

• My faith teaches me to be a voice for the voiceless and stand up for the oppressed. I expect everyone here to respect that. (Proverbs 31:8-9 and Isaiah 58:6-7 for scripture on speaking and acting to benefit the oppressed).

• I hate tribalism; it’s a form of favoritism I feel my faith tradition condemns (James 2:1-13 and Deuteronomy 10:12-22 are a few lines about favoritism).

• All humans are biased. To act like we aren’t is to deceive ourselves and others. I challenge my bias by reading widely, listening intently, and challenging my assumptions. I’ll work to be transparent about this process.

• My extensive research has led me to the conclusion that only one major political party is engaged in good-faith governance at the national level. I’m sick of Republicans like President Bush and Senator McCain being labeled as RINOs because they resisted extremism. I want my father’s Republican Party back.

• Evaluating each argument, each policy and each individual (including myself) based on my values is my operating philosophy…I rely on those closest to me (and now paid supporters) to kindly point out when I fall short of this. We may disagree because I’m opinionated, but I will receive it with an open mind and respond in kindness.

• I ramble sometimes. ^^^See last three points?^^^ Thank you in advance for your forgiveness! 😁

Thanks again…It means a lot 🙂

If you’ve stuck with me this far, I am so grateful for your time. ⏱️ I do feel like that means my newsletter might be a good fit for you. It’d be an honor if you’d consider subscribing for free with the button below to see my posts. If you consider supporting me with a paid subscription, that means so much to me. Even if you don’t, I pray you will join me in sowing hope in our relationships and communities.

“Listening is where love begins: listening to ourselves and then to our neighbors.”

Mr. Rogers

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