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Thoughts on Blogging

Today was really cool. A bunch of us are taking a class called Science and Christianity next semester. It will be a directed study in a seminar form so we’ll mostly be meeting without our professor to discuss our readings.

In order to be able to have actual discussions, Dr. Patterson had us meet today to get to know one another. He wanted us to share our personal history, religious history, scientific history, and present story. Knowing a little more about all these things, we could (theoretically :p) come to better understand one another and when in a discussion try to actually listen and see things from one another’s perspectives. It would also help us in talking to one another instead of just assuming things about our audience or not even acknowledging an audience all together. 

I really liked hearing about other people’s stories. It was encouraging, insightful, and interesting. And it made me remember why I even started blogging in the first place. I didn’t just want to blog by myself because I felt like that would have been really dumb but I wanted all my friends to join with me. I wanted to keep in touch with them over long physical distances and busy schedules, and get to know my friends better. I really do think that when we are able to learn more about one another, we can listen better. We can also carry out discussions and share ideas with our friends. 

But I was also thinking about the other side of things. I think Pastor Matt at City Reformed said this once, “We are the best idol-makers. We can make idols out of anything.” To everything good thing there is a bad as well. I can definitely see this with personal story sharing. We hear other people’s stories and we turn them into gods. We think to ourselves how smart, godly, or interesting someone else is. And we also compare them to ourselves: are we smart, godly, or interesting enough?

I think it’s easy to get trapped on either side of the argument. But I think in the end, it’s not about us at all. What John Piper says here really hits it home, 

Into the darkness of petty self-preoccupation has shone “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4). The Christian Gospel is about “the glory of Christ,” not about me. And when it is — in some measure — about me, it is not about my being made much of by God, but about God mercifully enabling me to enjoy making much of him forever.

It’s not ever about us. It’s about the glory of Christ. When we listen to people’s stories we can’t stop at, “wow, that’s really interesting” but we go beyond and realize, “wow, God is amazing and I can see him clearly at work in not only their life but the people they shared about as well.” We catch glimpses of God’s larger painting at work. And at the same time, God has given us this community, his body. He never said to do this alone. It’s not a Jesus and me thing—it never was. God chooses to work through our situations and the people around us. And he desires for us to be in a community, to love one another as ourselves. 

I guess I’ve been really wrestling with this idea of blogging. Am I supposed to only blog about God? What does that even mean? Can I share my thoughts on things? But I don’t think that everything should be so separated and compartmentalized. God is in every part of my life (I hope, haha) and I’d like to share my thoughts, interests, and story as well as hear other people’s. Sometimes things are more helpful than others, but I think that’s okay. I think we should always be careful with our words. I think we should always be mindful of our audience. But I don’t think we need to be legalistic about our thoughts. 

And I guess what I’m also saying is, I’m interested in listening to your thoughts. And if you’re following or reading this blog, then I’m also interested in letting you into my life. I don’t think a friendship is entirely based on written text and isolated blog posts, but it’s just another form of communication, like an email except with a more general audience open to inquiry and further thoughts (er, not that an email isn’t open to inquiry and further thoughts haha).

(I wish tumblr enabled public commenting with people who aren’t followers :/ but I guess that’s what the questions thing is for too)

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@Christine: Yeah, I agree. I think I’ve just been really hesitant about posting actual thoughts. I’ve actually only been posting links to share and things like that lately.

@Chris: Yes! And not being able to reply back. Originally I picked tumblr because I liked the interface and how you could just share videos or quotes you like with extreme ease but lately I’ve been considering switching back to a different blogging site because of the annoying commenting system :(.