When I first started this blog nearly a year ago, my wife Jane pointed out that I really needed to do a post explaining why I go by the pen name "St. Lee" in my posts. She pointed out that anyone seeing it might get the wrong impression. After all, many would think that you must have a pretty big head to assign the title "Saint" to your name. I agreed that it did warrant an explanation, but I am only now getting around to it.
If you have read any of my posts having to do with Christianity, I trust you will not have gotten the impression that I feel I have anything to boast of in either the fact of my being a Christian, or the life I live in regards to that Christianity. Any glory that is due is due only to God!
Quite the contrary, the moniker St. Lee came about as a result of a bit of satire that I had engaged in. Well before I started this blog, I was in the habit of following a number of other blogs regularly. One of my favorites was the now "retired" Purgatorio which managed to add a little humor to many people's day by bringing attention to some of the strange things done in the name of Christianity. Fairly early on, I read a post there about praying to Saints. I couldn't help responding to a comment by a lady who was obviously Catholic and wanted to explain the practice of praying to Saints. I have copied her comment here:
"Why? Because God has given his saints certain areas of expertise and dominion so that we here on earth can go to them for specific requests. It’s divine delegation, like the CEO of a large company. For instance, if someone wants to pray for protection during a long journey, he could pray to St. Christopher, the patron saint of travelers. His request goes straight to St. Christopher who has been given authority to answer that prayer (or not).It’s similar to the apostles ability to heal and cast out demons which was given to them by Jesus when he sent them out to preach the good news.It’s not mandatory that we pray to saints, but the option is open to us if we choose to do so.Please feel free to throw your stones now. "
My "tongue in cheek" response to her was as follows:
"Ok, I get it. In God’s business plan, he has delegated saints (like me) to answer the prayers of non saints. Wow, that’s quite a big responsibility. Kind of makes you wish the overworked CEO could find the time to deal with each of the non saints personally. "
And I signed my response "St. Lee"
Of course this nice lady's comment was based on her Roman Catholic understanding of the term Saint. If I am not mistaken, the Catholic faith has to officially declare a person a Saint, based on their good works leading to sanctification. My comment was based on the Baptist (and biblical I believe) understanding of the term; that is one who has been born again and declared righteous and holy due to the work of Christ completely separate from our own good works (or lack thereof).
Incidentally, I recall being taught as a young teen in the Lutheran Church something just about half way in between these two extremes. During a class we were told that a saint was not someone declared such by the Catholic Church, but actually any Christian who lived a very, very good life. When the class was asked to give examples of people they knew who qualified for the title saint, several of the other students agreed that my own mother fit the bill. I remember having somewhat mixed emotions at the time. Delight that my peers would see her in that light, but a bit wary because I knew she was not as perfect as they might think (though she really was a sweetheart). I still have somewhat mixed emotions, but I now have the clear realization that no matter how others may have seen of my mother, what matters is whether or not God saw her through the blood of Christ!
That is the story of how I became St. Lee on the blogosphere. It started as a bit of satire, but I decided to keep it since it fits only by the grace of God and the sacrifice of Christ. It was not until I had been using the pen name for some time that it even dawned on me that it could also be seen as a play on words ...Saintly ...St. Lee. As an adjective, saintly really does not fit, though by the grace of God that is slowly changing and some day will be an accurate description!
Showing posts with label About this Blog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label About this Blog. Show all posts
So, after toying with the idea for a couple years, and following a half dozen blogs for about a year, I finally decided to make the plunge and start one of my own. I have a couple of goals in mind. If you read my profile you will see that I have been a Harley mechanic/engine builder for over 30 years. I have also owned and ridden Knuckleheads for a like amount of time. For over 10 years of that time I was heavily involved in drag racing, most of it on a Knucklehead. I would like to pass on some of the things I have learned about Harley engines in general, and vintage Harley engines in particular, to anyone who cares to read it. Some of what I write on this subject will be fact, and some opinion (I will try to present it that way). I hope to get some feedback that may help all of us learn something! I also would like to tell a few tales of the early days of drag racing (early being a relative term).
The second goal of this blog is to provide an outlet for my seemingly unquenchable urge to proclaim the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. After living most of my adult life as a "biker" (what some would call a hard-core biker for a good part of that time), in the spring of 1999 God saved me by his grace (Ephesians 2:8), took away my heart of stone and gave me a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26), and I was born again (John 3:3). Though I have no formal training, by God's providence I was able to listen to 4 sermons a week in person for the next 6 years, and often as many as a half dozen a week on tape. For a couple of those years I was privileged to preach regularly as part of a jail ministry (now there is a real captive audience). There are a lot of sermons inside of me still straining to get out. I could simply write them on my computer and press save, but I guess a sermon is not a sermon unless there is at least the chance someone may hear it. Please don't let the term "sermon" scare you away though.
By now you are probably starting to get an idea of how the name of this blog came about. On the face of it, it is just the two separate subjects this blog is about, combined into one name.
Looking a little deeper though, you may find another level. If you are reading this because of the Harley Knucklehead content, and you are a long time Knucklehead fanatic,you will no doubt understand the connection. Ever heard the slogan "God rides a Harley"? or "If God rides a Harley, it probably runs on NITRO!" If knuckleheads were to hold the status of gods, then I hope to expound a little on the "theology" of those gods.
If , on the other hand, you are reading this because of the Christian content, you may (especially if you disagree with the doctrine I hold to) simply see the "Knucklehead" portion of the blog's name as an adjective used to describe the "Theology".
Now, to be perfectly transparent, this is not an attempt on my part to lure in an audience of bikers that came to read about Harleys, so I can "slip in the gospel" as many modern "evangelical churches" might operate. I fully expect that readers (if any) will come to this blog for either the Harley content or the Christian content. I did not intend to intermingle the two in the same post, however as time goes on, I have come to realize that I cannot, nor should I, separate my Christianity from the rest of my life. If you are a Christian, you too no doubt, have realized that it permeates every area of your life. So, if someone comes for the Harley content, but also gets caught up in the Christian posts, it will make me a very happy man.
Therefore, I am updating these last few lines of what I wrote here back in January of 2007, so that going forward from this day in April of 2011, you will see more posts in which Harley content and Christian content share space. By God's grace, that reflects who I am.
St.Lee
The second goal of this blog is to provide an outlet for my seemingly unquenchable urge to proclaim the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. After living most of my adult life as a "biker" (what some would call a hard-core biker for a good part of that time), in the spring of 1999 God saved me by his grace (Ephesians 2:8), took away my heart of stone and gave me a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26), and I was born again (John 3:3). Though I have no formal training, by God's providence I was able to listen to 4 sermons a week in person for the next 6 years, and often as many as a half dozen a week on tape. For a couple of those years I was privileged to preach regularly as part of a jail ministry (now there is a real captive audience). There are a lot of sermons inside of me still straining to get out. I could simply write them on my computer and press save, but I guess a sermon is not a sermon unless there is at least the chance someone may hear it. Please don't let the term "sermon" scare you away though.
By now you are probably starting to get an idea of how the name of this blog came about. On the face of it, it is just the two separate subjects this blog is about, combined into one name.
Looking a little deeper though, you may find another level. If you are reading this because of the Harley Knucklehead content, and you are a long time Knucklehead fanatic,you will no doubt understand the connection. Ever heard the slogan "God rides a Harley"? or "If God rides a Harley, it probably runs on NITRO!" If knuckleheads were to hold the status of gods, then I hope to expound a little on the "theology" of those gods.
If , on the other hand, you are reading this because of the Christian content, you may (especially if you disagree with the doctrine I hold to) simply see the "Knucklehead" portion of the blog's name as an adjective used to describe the "Theology".
Now, to be perfectly transparent, this is not an attempt on my part to lure in an audience of bikers that came to read about Harleys, so I can "slip in the gospel" as many modern "evangelical churches" might operate. I fully expect that readers (if any) will come to this blog for either the Harley content or the Christian content. I did not intend to intermingle the two in the same post, however as time goes on, I have come to realize that I cannot, nor should I, separate my Christianity from the rest of my life. If you are a Christian, you too no doubt, have realized that it permeates every area of your life. So, if someone comes for the Harley content, but also gets caught up in the Christian posts, it will make me a very happy man.
Therefore, I am updating these last few lines of what I wrote here back in January of 2007, so that going forward from this day in April of 2011, you will see more posts in which Harley content and Christian content share space. By God's grace, that reflects who I am.
St.Lee
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