Well I’ve decided to start journaling online again. I’ve never managed to keep one of these going for more than a year. From my childhood days when I ran my own BBS to several sites I tried to maintain over the past 4 years. Hopefully by going with the simple blogger pre-set system it’ll be a little easier to manage.
I’ve had several apprehensions about starting out again, one simply because I know it’s not the best way of communicating with people. From everything I’ve learned about communicating to people things like blogs and email is that it may be efficient, but it’s questionable whether it’s actually effective. As my wonderful wife always tells me there’s not like some good face to face. My friend ebrian mentions his struggles here trying to maintain friendships / conversations when some people read what you write while others don’t.
The other thing that’s been holding me back is that maybe I’m too old to be blogging. It’s not like I don’t have a million other things to do, and do I really want to expose my thoughts now that I’m an adult? Where most teens I know love sharing completely unfiltered, I find most adults I know have grown increasingly cautious about the things that they say… likely for fear of criticism and judgment.
I find that I too share these fears somewhat. That some may say “that’s not completely correct”, “I could have communicated that much better”, “Is that as deep as he can go?”… I’ve been teaching others and learning myself the last while that these fears are false and in no way should stop any one of us from being who God has called us to be, just as we are.
Anyhow, I hope to journal online as a spiritual discipline. I find writing down my devotions solidify many of my thoughts and help me hold myself accountable. I hope that it also does provide some form of encouragement and that some of you might also be able to pull out a nugget or two of insight as I strive to be a genuine follower of Jesus.
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Virtual relationships…
by Lon on December 15, 2007
There are so many more people around the world who read my blog than people I connect with regularly in person.
I’m guessing part of this is because if you’re in my regular circles, well, we can catch up just about anytime we want in person. Another part might be due to the anonymity of the internet and how you can peek into someone’s life without them ever knowing about it. And then there’s those of you who’ve contributed to the thousand plus comments here.
Either way, I’m thankful for those of you who might actually think I have something of value to say or share. I’m amazed by the number of you who subscribe to the SolarCrash feed because as much as I’ve tried to narrow the scope of the blogging, you really never know what you’re going to get. So thanks for sticking around.
I’ve also especially appreciate the interaction. The networking has been fantastic, and your comments have been both encouraging and insightful.
I’ll be removing the plugoo instant chat widget I have on the sidebar (just so it doesn’t become a let down when I’m not around), but it’s awesome how with technology today I’ve been able to interact with so many church planters, leaders, and strangers around the world. Just yesterday I chatted with a teen who had been a cutter and was wondering what god had to do with life at all.
You can continue connecting with me further via comments, the contact page, or even via facebook if you’re into that sort of thing.
So again, thank you for reading, thank you for sticking around, thank you for commenting, thank you for clicking the ads, thank you for allowing me to be a part of your day, and although the relationships might primarily be virtual, thank you for the friendships. I’m looking forward to the journey ahead together.
My name is Lon, and I thank God for blogs.
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