With all that you have going on, why do you write? Why do you blog daily? Isn’t it a burden?
I’ve often been asked these questions and until recently, didn’t ever have very good answers. I love to write. I love being able to speak into others’ lives in meaningful ways. I love the opportunity to be used by God to minister through the written word. But what is it about blogging that keeps me going?
It was Fall 2010 when I began my blog and in January 2011 I made a personal commitment to write daily. The idea for a blog originally grew out of a desire to have a place to express ideas and thoughts beyond the 140-character limit of Twitter or the limiting nature of Facebook. Developing a blog/webpage was also part of a desire to increase exposure and grow/expand my speaking ministry. I’ve always loved to write, and having a blog has given me an audience and pushed me use writing as a ministry. But there’s something more to it than just that…
It’s always amazing to me when I begin writing a blog post. There are times when I know where I’m headed and have thought through the entire post. However, most times I start with an idea, a thought or a little story. I’m honestly not sure where I’m headed with it, but I begin writing. And as I write, the post unfolds. In the past I’ve often smirked at authors that I’ve heard claim they didn’t know how their story would end up – that the characters had to tell them. While I don’t write fiction, I’ve experienced something similar myself. It is as if God Himself guides my thoughts and my writing down the paths, helping me to discover the greater truths He wants to show.
Quite often, I’ve also found that writing is usually more about me than my audience. It is as if I end up writing to myself more than anyone else in the end. The messages that come forth in each blog post address something with which I’m struggling, working through or thinking about. But I never set out to do that. It is just that the daily opportunity to process and write opens doors for me to communicate with the Lord (and Him with me) in ways I hadn’t realized.
And so I write and write. And in the end I stand back, often amazed at what I’ve written – not because it’s particularly good or well-done, but because each post represents a mini-retreat with the Lord. In ways I can’t explain, the very words I type on the screen become words of life to me in my own journey. I can see that God has indeed been present in this creative endeavor, and in the end, I’ve placed a piece of my heart, and His heart, on the written page. Glorious!
