It was a busy day, and at the end of it, I had errands to run and somewhere to be. So it wasn’t cool when my debit card was declined in the grocery store checkout line – three times.

“Maybe you should go call your bank,” the friendly teller suggested.

That’s when I saw the fraud alert text from my bank. So I called.

After five minutes of prompts and recorded fraud messages, I reached a fraud alert specialist. Let’s just say English was not her first language, and possibly not even her second. It took a while for me to understand “verbal verification code.” Then once she got my information, we were disconnected.

Another five minutes of prompts and messages.

Everyone at the front of the store was watching. Let’s just say I can be a little animated when I talk on the phone, even when I’m polite. In between gesticulations, prompts and replies to security questions, I prayed I’d reach someone from my home country for whom English is the primary language.

“Are you still on the phone?” the casher whispered from her station. The baggers hovered like butterflies over milkweed, waiting for a juicy tidbit. They occasionally shook their heads in sympathy at witnessing my exasperation as the basket of my nearly room-temperature food sat beside me. Mine, but not quite.

“All they’re telling me is that there was a security breach with a vendor I recently used, and they’ve frozen all cards associated with that vendor,” I announced to everyone in the front half of the store.

Satisfied that I am who I am supposed to be, the fraud specialist authorized my transaction – the last on that card – so that I could rush home and try to make up for lost time. Alas, there is a benefit to being me.

Yes, I am myself, and that self is a very frail, imperfect person. With the launch of my new site, I have been left feeling humbled, overwhelmed and inadequate for the task before me. My intention in this place is not to point you to myself but to Christ, whom I long to imitate.

“Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” – Ephesians 5:1-2

We’re on this journey called life together, my friends. To quote my home state, let’s arrive alive, for our aliveness can only be found in Him.