Another Day …
Posted by Chris
I've got to watch myself sometimes. I think I can get so overwhelmed with feelings of urgency (and the extreme: feelings of apathy) that I neglect things in my life. I find myself this Tuesday morning in need of a check up once again - a reminder of what life is really all about and where my place is in the midst of it all. This blog is one indicator to me, among many others. One on front it is a communications tool, allowing us to keep those within our lives (both near & far) informed about where our life is at the present time. On another front it is a place for me to write - a habit that I want to pursue more and more in my life. And on yet another front it is a spiritual extension of my life.
God began to show me about 6 months ago that using the Internet (and more specifically a blog) to communicate heart/soul-felt convictions was in fact a spiritual discipline in my life. I think of what I write here in terms of journaling - only instead of writing something down in a notebook that is only between myself & God, blogging is a way of journaling in community. I don't share everything here ... there is still some things that are too intimate spiritually to share with just anyone. But there are many thoughts that I find myself feeling urged to share in a public way. I don't know if what I write at times affects anyone else, or if a particular thing that God has shown/is showing me moves in the hearts of someone else who reads it. In fact, I doubt that it would change much if no one else actually read these words. I have blogged 'in private' before (that is, blogging when I knew no one else was reading) and it didn't change the fact that I felt that same sense of urgency to do so as I often do now.
Tim Bednar is someone whose blog I follow with some sense of regularity. He spent a great deal of time last year talking with Christian bloggers from all over the world to get a sense of what blogging in the spiritual sense means. He shares a post from fellow blogger Chad Canipe ...
I think part of the "spiritual discipline" of blogging (chuckle if you like, but it can be) for me is that it serves as a sort of stethoscope that listens to the condition of my heart/soul. What am I learning? How am I living? What's important to me? What's not important? Am I growing? Where can I see God at work in the midst of my life?
I think those sorts of questions get answered when I read back over my recent posts. So when I find it hard to write anything of substance, it tells me that I'm either too busy or I'm drifting or coasting through life. I mean, for Pete's sake, I'm writing more about my bathroom tile than I am about what's going on at soul-level. Granted, we all encounter seasons of rest and work, freshness and stagnation. The process of maturity in life is never a straight line -- the need for mid-course corrections are inevitable. So, that's where I am at the moment. Sensing the need for some change in my soul. Not in a self-loathing, "miserable Christian" sort of way, but with an attitude that says "Thank you, Lord, for nudging me again."
Chad Canipe, "Midcourse Correction", September 25, 2003 (http://www.newlifecincy.com/chad/2003_09_01_archive.asp)
As mentioned in "We Know More Than Our Pastors" - Tim Bednar (http://www.e-church.com)
All this to say that I noticed I haven't posted anything here since Friday morning. Granted some of this has been due to business, but much more has been due to laziness. It's the same laziness that I see creeping into my time with God. I relegate my conversations with Him too many times to the sporadic notes I drop here & there. I'm glad of these conversations, but I miss, all too often, the intimate, focused directiveness of my heart to His that I have known more in the past.
This morning I spent that extra time & I'm glad. Just writing this is a testament in my own mind that things have begun to be set on the right path once again.
I think I will add a side section entitled something like "Blogs We Read" with links to other Christians whose journeys we share in from time to time. But for now it's back to life ...
Tim Bednar is someone whose blog I follow with some sense of regularity. He spent a great deal of time last year talking with Christian bloggers from all over the world to get a sense of what blogging in the spiritual sense means. He shares a post from fellow blogger Chad Canipe ...
I think part of the "spiritual discipline" of blogging (chuckle if you like, but it can be) for me is that it serves as a sort of stethoscope that listens to the condition of my heart/soul. What am I learning? How am I living? What's important to me? What's not important? Am I growing? Where can I see God at work in the midst of my life?
I think those sorts of questions get answered when I read back over my recent posts. So when I find it hard to write anything of substance, it tells me that I'm either too busy or I'm drifting or coasting through life. I mean, for Pete's sake, I'm writing more about my bathroom tile than I am about what's going on at soul-level. Granted, we all encounter seasons of rest and work, freshness and stagnation. The process of maturity in life is never a straight line -- the need for mid-course corrections are inevitable. So, that's where I am at the moment. Sensing the need for some change in my soul. Not in a self-loathing, "miserable Christian" sort of way, but with an attitude that says "Thank you, Lord, for nudging me again."
Chad Canipe, "Midcourse Correction", September 25, 2003 (http://www.newlifecincy.com/chad/2003_09_01_archive.asp)
As mentioned in "We Know More Than Our Pastors" - Tim Bednar (http://www.e-church.com)
All this to say that I noticed I haven't posted anything here since Friday morning. Granted some of this has been due to business, but much more has been due to laziness. It's the same laziness that I see creeping into my time with God. I relegate my conversations with Him too many times to the sporadic notes I drop here & there. I'm glad of these conversations, but I miss, all too often, the intimate, focused directiveness of my heart to His that I have known more in the past.
This morning I spent that extra time & I'm glad. Just writing this is a testament in my own mind that things have begun to be set on the right path once again.
I think I will add a side section entitled something like "Blogs We Read" with links to other Christians whose journeys we share in from time to time. But for now it's back to life ...
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