As usual, coming back to this blog makes me think the following thoughts:
1) maybe I should just start a new blog, in hopes that I could provide a resource for the people of Littleton Christian Church and the millions (okay maybe more like 3-7) of people outside of LCC who periodically pay attention to my ramblings.
2) Or, maybe I should skip the whole "blog" thing all together, since one of my life goals is to write bookS (the S is big because I don't just want to write A book and be done with it). The reasoning there is "if I'm writing a blog each day (this is my land of intentions, where I do in fact write each day), then when will I ever work on my bookS?" Of course, I've watched one beloved friend do just what I envision: he focused all his efforts on writing a book, but when he attempted to publish it, publishers looked for his BLOG and wondered who would read him? He's had to work to get the blog thing going for quite a while ever since.
3) Add to #2 the nervous hesitation of revelation. The nature of blogging, much like this whole new culture of social networking, is that what is private (the present reference is to the things floating around in my head) becomes irreversibly public. There are people in my life who I'm a bit nervous to reveal my thoughts to for a whole list of probably-ridiculous reasons.
4) Finally, there are millions of people (I should probably say billions, but I'm still awfully prideful) with better things to say than me. It feels a little cocky, putting up a blog (or writing a book, for that matter) and expecting that people will read it.
But, at present, I have a number of reasons to write that I usually would not have.
1) On December 28, 2010, I made a one year commitment to abstain from the absolute waste-of-time activities that had become addictions in my life. For much of 2010, I'm embarrassed to admit that my daily routine was wake up, make breakfast and a hot pot of coffee with the intention of having a time of devoting my mind and heart to God through prayer, scripture, journaling or devotional writing. Instead, I would open my computer, watch the highlights from yesterday's NBA news on ESPN, and then visit Hulu and watch one or two episodes of my favorite shows. The hypocrisy here is fabulous. Erin and I (oh... I got married in between my last post and this one... pretty much the best thing ever) don't have a functional TV in our house (we have an old TV in the basement which we watch movies on from time to time). Thanks to the internet, I closed the door on that temptation and discovered about a dozen windows. To make it "bite size," my committed Abstention is for 1 year. However, I hope to have it so out of my system by December 28th that I never go back. What's the point of all this? That in the time I used to literally waste, I've already rediscovered the joy of reading, writing, and praying... and it may be that I'll actually have some more to say (although, see #4 in the first list).
2) The reality is that I actually do write a lot every week, but all my writing and thinking results in a very unique genre: the sermon. Every sermon I write ends up being about 7 pages on a Word document (12 point font, single spaced). For whatever reason, that is what "feels" like a complete sermon for me, though practically every Sunday I end up self-editing (the Spirit is usually involved, but sometimes it's fear or confusion) and skipping things I've written. Not only that, but I've discovered that a 7 page sermon is too long. Now, I agree with all those people who say "preach as long as the Spirit leads" and "don't put limits on the Spirit," but I have seen far too many people misuse that and simply ramble for 20-60 minutes longer than they should have. The developing philosophy here could be a whole blog in and of itself... Anyway, the whole point of this point #2 is this: I may have an opportunity to use this blog to disperse some of the information or thoughts that I've chosen to edit out of sermons. Then again, making that public (see #3 above) may deal a deathblow to my readership. Who wants to hear the stuff an already long-winded preacher decided to trim out of his sermons? Maybe a better way to say it is the next point.
3) Yesterday, I started a new preaching series. It is officially my fourth preaching series of my short and wonderful (though not always easy) time as a preacher. The first was two weeks long and was about intentional community - it was with the goal of sparking a small group ministry at the church, which it did. Those lasted for about a year... now we really need small groups again (Wow, I really do digress sometimes). The second was a 19 month series on Paul's Letter to the Romans. And the third, which I completed in November, was a 10-month series on the Book of Revelation. Thanks to those series, those are two of the most important books in the Canon for me. Well, yesterday I announced that we would start a series on the book of Proverbs. But there is one major difference between Proverbs and Romans or Revelation. Proverbs, while a complete and intentionally organized piece of literature, was not necessarily written as one big presentation... in fact, other than the speeches of chapters 1-9 and chapter 31, it seems to be mostly a pretty assorted collection of sayings gathered from all over the ancient Near East (though they have been carefully chosen and tweaked to fit the mindset of a believer in YHWH, the God of Israel). My point is this: I'm not going to preach every verse of Proverbs. Which means there will be a lot of Proverbial sayings that I skip, but would love to delve into more deeply. Maybe, for the next couple months, this blog could be a good place to do just that? Here's the reality: some Proverbs don't make sense to me. Some seem too obvious. Some seem like they make sense, but then when I compare them to the sayings of Jesus, it seems they are in contradiction. I'd love a place to really investigate that in community. Thank you, blogosphere!
4) In argument against my #2 above, I've found that my brain works more like a snowball and less like a reservoir. The more I write, think, pray, read, and write (yes, I know it's there twice... that's the process), the more I have to say. Like a snowball, my thoughts grow as they go (and sometimes crash into things... sorry in advance). The mentality of #2 above is that I only have a limited number of things to say, so if I waste them here, in a place where I'm not even sure whether they remain "my property" (does anyone actually read the legal agreements on the internet when you join different social networking sites? They're as long as a Mike Wright blog! Who would read that?), I won't have anything else to say! But... that's not true. And, as I said, I don't know the legal loopholes, but my assumption is that there would be no problem with reproducing my ramblings from this blog in the more polished (and possibly dying) medium of a BOOK.
5) My amazing wife, Erin, and I have found ourselves completely swept up in the blogs of some family members of a family in our church. Wow that was a bad sentence. Hey, it's a blog! Anyway, we love this family in our church. Their sister suffered a major stroke last week, and praying for her and for all the people involved with her (her husband, daughters, and family) has become a major part of our days. You can find out more, and join in helping, by going here. As we've followed along, we've been struck by the fact that their willingness to be honest and public with their lives before this happened has impacted and encouraged thousands of people. I would rather send you there than say you'll get that sort of inspiration here, but the point is this: there is a power in being honest and authentic in a wise way. Thank you, Joanne and Toben, for encouraging us in that and about 100 other ways in the last week.
I can't promise I'll break the cycle. Sorry if I promised that in the past. But, here's to at least a few months worth of publicizing my ramblings.
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