The older I get the more I learn to knock on wood when I say the word NEVER. Like, "I will never have TV screens in my car for my kids" or "I will never pay someone to mow my yard". Both, at this stage of life, have become essentials. I've also said I would never be so presumptuous (so I thought) as to think someone might want to read my blog if I had one. I started a blog years ago, but let it go shortly after realizing...no one was reading it!
I still don't expect many to read what I have to write, but I have grown to understand that there's more reasons for me to write than there are for me to not. Regardless of the size of readership that may or may not come, there are three primary reasons I feel compelled to organize some writings in blog form at this stage of life and ministry:
I was always the kid that would rather take the essay test than the multiple choice, or even write a paper about how to do math rather than actually do the math. Writing is something I have always loved to do and feel like on some level I am able to do if I try hard enough. Now, it's nourishing to me. It's life giving. It helps me organize my thoughts about what God is teaching me. One of the great tensions I have as I get older is the discrepancy between what I am passionate about and how much time I actually spend doing what I'm passionate about. Most of us feel that at some point. I'm taking steps to minimize that divide. So, I write for myself.
My kids are getting way too old way too fast. As they get older I want them to have a place they can go to understand who their dad was while they were growing up. Of course I share my time and my hugs and my heart with them now, but I want to give them a resource, a collection, a gift of sorts they can always have with them that gives them insight into my love for them, their mom, our church and Jesus. My days are numbered and my presence will be forgotten one day, but my words can carry on for them and a blog seems to be a good place to organize those words for them. So, I write for my family.
I love Woodlands Point Community Church and want to resource them as best I can. The church has a blog which we will continue to update regularly, but not all I will post here is relevant to the church as a whole. There will be some crossover, but not completely. More than that, I am healthier for Woodlands Point as a pastor if I am doing more of what I'm passionate about. The more I translate what God is doing in me into words on a page for my soul to read the better I am for those God has called me to serve. I am only as good for them as I am growing in me. Like in an airplane, before I hand off the oxygen mask I need to breath through it first. Writing is a breath of fresh air for me. So, I write for my church.
Hopefully some of you will read it, but if not that's ok. I've revamped some old blogs that I will be posting here over the next couple of days. Some on orphan care, some church planting, some the Gospel or missional living or spiritual growth. I'll also be regularly posting new blogs. My hope is to write about Jesus and the things Jesus is about.
If you read any of them let me know, and do me a favor by sharing it with others. I hope it might be a resource for them to use as they grow in their pursuit of Jesus and in their understanding of His pursuit of them.
Thanks, friends!