It is with a mix of gratitude and humility that I realize that anybody should want to read my thoughts and opinions on anything enough to provide the readership base that this blog now enjoys. Though it’s small in comparison to the “biggies” in the world of Christian blogging, some of you — including some people in the worldwide Christian community whom I greatly respect — have even bothered to subscribe to this particular online voice.
One thing I have tried to do is stay focused on faith issues, religious news and devotional concepts. I don’t talk about tech, or gear, or blogging itself, and I’ve tried to leave my wife and family out of this, but still give the blog enough ‘personality’ that it represents my heart, and isn’t just an exercise in Christian news journalism. That said however, there have been a few stories that I thought were significant that other bloggers didn’t pick up, and so I’ve tried to be faithful to importing some things from news pages into these blog pages that people might have otherwise missed.
I’ve also tried not to rant, though that can be difficult. (I have two other blogs for that very purpose!) There are times when it’s just too easy to complain about that which isn’t ideal, but I’ve tried to make those comments enlightening and constructive.
In a way, writing — whether it’s correspondence or keeping a journal (or weblog) — is very much what separates us from the animals in general and is rooted in Christian tradition in particular. “Bring me the scrolls;” the Apostle Paul asks, “and especially the parchments.” Much earlier, Solomon notes, “There is no end to the writing of books.” And to think that was before the printing press or any other kind of “mass” distribution of the written word, let alone print-on-demand which as of now releases more titles than conventional book publishing.
Which means there are so many voices competing for your attention that I am, as I said at the outset, thankful and humbled that you should happen to stop here.
I once wrote the biography for a Christian musician’s press kit. He described the early part of his life this way, “I had a message, I just couldn’t carry a message.”
It’s easy for me to sit at the keyboard and have a daily message for my readers. But I have to be the kind of person who is a spiritually viable carrier for the message I want to bring. I need to be able to carry the message, and like all of us, I am learning as I go.
Thinking Out Loud 