Robert Merkle:  

Aloha! from Kauai. I am in the process of writing a book, primarily for my own interest in putting into words many of my thoughts and questions. Following is an introduction both to me and to the book. One of my very early childhood memories is of playing with several of my brothers and sisters near the barn on the farm where we grew up, and trying to explain to them a statement I insisted someone told me! “We are not as we appear to be!” was all I remembered. I had no clue as to who told me, or what it meant. I do recall one of my feeble attempts at explaining was that perhaps we only appeared to be standing up straight, but may in fact be bent 90 degrees at the waist. Another clear memory is of finding that things were always easy for me, not that I necessarily did things exceptionally well—in our rural area there was little competitiveness and relatively few with whom to be compared. The only pressures I recall revolved around wanting to prove that we were not “dumb and dirty” like a few kids from the other large, poor families in our local school. While my father had a business college degree, but had returned to the family farm during the Great Depression, higher education was never discussed, perhaps because it seemed an unrealistic possibility for kids from a tenant farmer’s family of 10 children. However, after working one year following high school graduation, I found myself in college, enrolled in a course of study in preparation for the Christian ministry. In my first semester I earned an A grade in Greek language studies, and a D- in English studies. Somehow, with little preparation and even less money, plus a lot of wonderful help from my new wife, I made it through four years of undergraduate school and four years of theological school to become ordained in the Christian ministry. While serving as pastor of a small town, liberal protestant church, it became increasingly clear that there had to be more to life and more to do in life than meeting the expectations of the wonderful “salt-of-the-earth” people for whom I was working. After experimenting with question-and-answer sermons, flip charts and slide-show sermon deliveries, drama presentations, small group meetings, etc., and the resulting mixed reactions from church members, it became clear that it was time to move on. It was as if I were being told to go--But Where? After exploring several options I was encouraged by a friend to join him in the pursuit of a doctorate in pastoral psychology so we could be equipped to make realistic, scientifically based, practical, life-changing contributions to people’s lives. I could no longer believe in a Chief Operating Officer living somewhere out in space, who could be influenced by humans to perform magical feats that bless some and harm others either in this life or in an eternal life that is to follow. And I was convinced that there had to be more to this life than earning enough money so we can die before going brok...Expand for more