Ok--I suppose in a blog it would be somewhat important to know a few things about the person speaking. Or typing. Or blogging. You get the point. 

My name is Richard Kidd. That makes me "rich Kidd." I know, kinda crazy, I've asked my mother if she were still on the drugs from childbirth. I'm not rich, by the way, but Rich Kidd is not such a bad name. (My dad is named Jerry, making me one of Jerry's kidds. you do the math) I was born in Washington D.C. while my dad was at the Pentagon. We moved to North Carolina, where we spent about 13 years. (Greensboro, Shelby) and then moved to good ole' Virginia Beach when I started High School. I'm a graduate of Kempsville High School (Go Chiefs!) From there I went west on I-64 to the College of William and Mary. (Go tribe! wait--please excuse that. The NCAA has ruled that Tribe! is 'hostile and abusive' to Native Americans. maybe I should say ' Go geeks in green!')

After graduating with a degree in history, I considered my career options:

1. Teach

2. Go to grad school

3. Drive a cab. 

I opted for # 2. That is, after a year and a half of youth ministry at a place called Williamsburg Community Chapel (which is a completely awesome church and one of the first places I saw demonstrated an incarnational ministry style where spirituality did not cancel out humanity, but rather completed it)  Stated simply, I loved ministry with Dick Woodward and Bill Warrick. They are still my spiritual heroes. www.wcchapel.org

After that I went to Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (now Trinity International University) www.tiu.edu where I graduated with an M.Div. (Magna thank the Laude) Immediately afterward I married Bridget Mathias Kidd, a 93 School of Psych. and Counseling grad. (ok--now my serious lack of skills is showing because Bridget's pic that I tried to post landed all the way at the top...which I suppose is fitting, so we'll leave it. )

Then, to fast forward a bit,(as my kids say 'One, two, skip a few, 100)  I went to Houston, then back to Virginia Beach, off to Atlanta for a few years, then back to Virginia Beach--where I dipped into the business world for awhile. finally, I came aboard at my wife's alma mater--Regent University. 

So a word now on the title--"Are we there yet?" It's about journey. It's about how each of us is a work in progress. It's about how we as humans learn to walk through life with an awareness of the spiritual dimension of our existence--something the Hebrew Bible calls a "ruach" a spirit (or wind!) Such that right living in the New Testament is called "walking in the Spirit" And let me be the first to tell you that my journey has been anything but straight...I've had twists and turns, ups and downs...and more downs. But always, it is when I recognize the Jesus the Messiah is walking with me that I can look back and gain more understanding of the curves and the washed out bridges and the desert stretches where I've been. 

One of my favorite stories in the Bible tells of two men on a journey. They were discouraged, downcast, desperate because of the things that had happened to the man they believed in. Little did they know, that man was right in front of them.

Lk. 24:15As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16but they were kept from recognizing him.

The trick for me is to ask God to give me eyes to see Jesus on my journey, and to receive his perspective, and the result is amazing.

31Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32They asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and 

opened the Scriptures to us?"

I know that I want my heart to burn with passion, not be downcast in depression. But life is tough, and that's often our response. I'd like this blog to be a place where I share my journey--maybe you share some of yours, and we'll help each other, like these two men on the road, to see Jesus, and to hear his perspective, so that our hearts would burn within us with passion for the risen Christ. 

That's all for now...but here's a question. 

"Where are you going?" (aka- what's your story? )

Let me hear from you. 

post here , or send responses directly to ministry@regent.edu