ABOUT ME

I am not the creator, but a scribe with a pen
I'm recreating visions through a cracked and broken lens
And only One has ever seen the home for which we long
And I am just a beggar who gives alms
Downhere, The Beggar Who Gives Alms

That's really all that this site is: "a beggar giving alms", for "out of his fullness we have all received grace upon grace" (John 1:16).

I've been around the block a few times, messed up in more ways that I thought possible, and yet I daily discover that God's grace, expressed in and through His only Son Jesus Christ, is enough for me. Every day is a new opportunity to learn more about that grace, about the love of God that passes all understanding, about the mercy that inspires songs of worship all over the world. The apostle John wrote that if everything Jesus did were to be written down, "even the whole world would not have room" to contain all the books, and yet He is constantly writing more books in our lives. This whole site is one beggar trying to share his book with the other beggars out there.

I've studied theology, and in the process discovered that the best place to learn to live the Christian life

is in the trenches of everyday life. I've spent many years in Christian media, but I've discovered that writing your own life-story of God's love is far more awe-inspiring that reading those of others; I've learned that singing your own song is far more satisfying than knowing the latest worship song; I've seen that the hand of God in my life is creating something much more precious than all the art our species has produced. At various times I have laboured in the church or tried to avoid it, and discovered that I am the church... displaying or obscuring the One who should be the center of the church. Sometimes I felt proud of my life, but mostly I tried to hide in embarrassment, and ever so slowly I started learning that it's not about me and how I live, but about the One who said "I am the life".

On these pages you'll find some of the things I've learned on my journey of grace, and are still learning every day. I pray that it will inspire you to go out there with God and live your own lifesong.

Flip van der Merwe
March 2015