Recently, Tim Challies has been calling for bloggers to continue their personal blogs or to pick up and try again if they've given up. He posted some comments today from readers with their reasons for continuing, or having given up, why they were drawn back to it. While many of the comments are from those who blog on ministry sites, Challies encourages all of us to write for the sake of the gospel.
I'm one of those who started for a year, gave up for several years, then began again a few years ago. Sometimes consistently. Most often not. One of the reasons for inconsistency or even giving up is that writing is work and takes time. Words do not come easily to me, although thoughts are constantly bouncing around in my head. I don't always have the time to sit and focus on those thoughts, to bring them from my mind through my fingertips onto the keyboard in coherent discourse. It's definitely a discipline much like exercise and too often left unattended.
Adding to the time issue is the feeling that there are many other bloggers out there saying things in a much more compelling way than I possibly could. Their experiences seem so much more alive and interesting than my own. Yet, I know, too, that what is familiar and perhaps mundane to ourselves can be new and interesting to others. Perhaps it's the turn of words, the slight nuance that helps someone see things in a slightly different light, or the connection of one's life to another's experience.
My thoughts may be simple, but I've been reminded that if anyone is reached with the truth of the gospel, if anyone is encouraged by thoughts that are eventually formed into sentences and paragraphs with gospel meaning, then I have at least had a small (but never insignificant) part in encouraging the call to Kingdom life.
And that is not in the least bit inconsequential.
