“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” Maya Angelou

    Do you have a story? Of course you do. Everyone has a story. Maybe yours is a story of agony. Maybe a story of heartbreak. Maybe it is a story of great conquest and success against untold odds. Whether you view your story as good or bad, interesting or not, it is yours and you wear it like an undergarment; it may not be visible, but it is always there.
    I also have a story. My story revolves around a family that was intended as a cord of seven, but who were often frayed and loosely knit. I had a dad, but he was not the strength that he could have been. In that environment I learned how to be aloof, and how to be lonely in a crowd. But I also learned there were outlets for my need to be relevant and loved.
    Often those outlets were met through baseball (whiffleball!) or football or through some of the best neighborhood friends I think a boy could have ever had. Gloff and Hop and Mik, and "I" and Quiz and Peachy. (Back then... everyone had a nickname.) My brother was Big Streub and I was little Streub or Little Reub, depending on who you talked to. We did a lot together.
    But as good as those things were, sports and friends could not relieve my loneliness. That is when I found the guitar, and music, and listening to the poets of the day through modern song. It was through these avenues that I found consolation and relief from my loneliness. I could relate to Neil Diamond's "Shilo" and struggled with self-worth as Neil did when he said "I am I said. To no one there. And no one heard at all not even the chair.”
    Often times it is in our weaknesses that we find our strengths. Strengths that rise out of the ashes of a challenging or dysfunctional life and take their place within the makeup of a person. Though they may be seen by those around you, often these strengths are not overt, and may not lead to an all encompassing change of life, but they are strength’s none the less. My struggles of loneliness and lack of self-confidence led to a strength and love for words, and lyrics, and melody, and the guitar, and for writing poetry, and learning how to design and create with my hands that which I could see in my mind, even though no one else cared or could see.
    But, as much as those strengths became part of my life story, I came to realize that they were not the whole story, just overarching themes within the chapters of my life. I do have a story, and my story is not complete without Jesus. Jesus entered that story when I was a twenty something when I wasn’t even looking for Him. I was looking for a girl, but I guess Jesus was looking for me.
    It is Jesus that completes my story and makes sense of it when the chapters of my life are incongruent. It is Jesus that has allowed me to see my loneliness, lack of confidence, and even my sin in ways I could not see when writing the story by myself. It is He who helps me to see the bigger picture of each chapter and He who has solidly defined my final chapter.
    Though loneliness and confidence will always be a challenge for me, gradually He has helped me to make progress in overcoming them. He has also allowed the strengths I have developed even in my low times to be used now for purposes I didn’t imagine when I encountered them.
    That is why you will see on this site a mixture of what life was before Jesus and what my life has been since Jesus. A mixture of my faith, my humanity, my past and my hope for the future, of music, and poetry and love for mankind.

    And what about the name U.Art.Known? Well it of course is a pen name and came about through a challenge. A friend read me a poem she loved that was nonsensical in nature, you know the kind that you read that is fun but doesn't really make sense. It was from Author Unknown. Trying to win her affections I wrote an equally nonsensical poem, but signed it Arthur Known, as she did know me. When going to write my first book I continued the double entendre by changing and shortening it to U.Art.Known to add the meaning that all of us, everyone of us, are known by God. My real name is Mark Streuber. I have a beautiful wife, Arlene and 4 wonderful children.