If you’ve watched “Lost in Space” you know this warning. Around our house we use them whenever one of us is about to say or do something that’s going to either get us in trouble or be a problem. As some of you know, I’ve been coming to terms with my blog and what God wants me to do with this gift of writing. I’ve become overwhelmed with the whole culture of blogging I discovered exists..
Up until a few weeks ago I was blissfully unaware that any of it existed much less the influence that it has. When all of a sudden the floodgates were opened. My first awareness of this was definitely from the Lord. He opened my eyes to Allume through Tim Kimmel’s Family Matters blog. I don’t remember who posted there, but Allume was mentioned along with the conference for bloggers. I was just ramping up to what I saw my blog becoming – a vehicle to share the speed-bumps in my life and how I handled them; hoping to get some knowledge and understanding along the way. This conference was indeed confirmation to me from Him. Yet, I wandered down a side road of information after this point; and in doing so got sucked into the “world” of blogging. Thus, the blogosphere took the wheel. I realized what was happening the other day. My thinking came to a screeching halt and I hit reverse and got back to the road He’s on. Hmm, this is beginning to sound like a re-telling of Cars- sorry for all the automotive descriptors! Moving right along….
I am so appreciative for this gift of writing that I am called to do in this season of my life. Nursing was just one season of my life. God has been training me, nurturing me, spurring me on through all of the seasons of my life so far, and I have been listening- since I first put pencil to paper to write that first line- ages ago. Now He calls me to write to/for others as well as for myself.
I’ve seen and experienced the touch that a spirit-filled post can bring. I know that God has used the words He has given for a purpose. He has granted me, and others, the art of crafting of those words to benefit someone who needs them. It is in telling our stories that we extend the human hand of Jesus. We touch that soul struggling with the same issues that we carry around. A heart is comforted, assured, strengthened by the words given us to share by the King of Kings.
Some of us blog to deliver a product, some blog to demonstrate knowledge, some blog to use it as a stepping stone to being published, some blog to share an experience to those going through similar experiences, some blog to expose a world of hurt to the healing air, some to scratch at old scars, some to rejoice in their children, and some to reveal deep sorrow in their lives. Whatever the pull has been to blog, there’s a similarity in all of us: We would like to know that someone is out there reading our blog.
For those of us who write/blog because we are compelled by God to share this gift of words, there is real danger out there lurking. The danger has a name: SELF WORTH. There’s a tendency we have- we are all human after all- to hold up a measuring stick beside our contributions to the world. We can soon become consumed by those stats, hits, subscribers, followers, link-ups, guest postings, re-tweets, and whatever other media opportunities are available.
We will be overwhelmed and sucked into the World of Blogging culture-unless we are armed and prepared for the attack. We only have one offensive weapon in our armory- The Sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. {Ephesians 6:17}. There’s only one weapon because we only need one.
As we write, the commission we’ve been charged with by our Lord to go to the world to make disciples, to baptize and to teach them to obey Him, becomes central to our writing. {Matthew 28:18-20}
In the age we live in, I think blogging is one tool He wants us to use to accomplish His Will (at least for me it is). We have the opportunity to touch the world with words on a page that instantly reach anywhere the internet is available. We are the Light of the World; the Salt of the Earth- that’s what Jesus calls us. We are in this world to reflect Him to those around us and to flavor the world with the unique taste of His Love. When our sight, our focus, our vision, our gaze becomes distracted by the world’s measurements we cease to be useful reflections of Him. Instead, we become stumbling blocks, caught up in self and sometimes entangling others.
I’ve been using the plural here, but I’m really reminding myself: my worth is nothing to me or anyone else unless Jesus is the one measuring. God has been using several different authors to speak that reminder to me lately as I’ve been trying things out on my blog and letting things distract me from what He wants me to share. Let me assure you-He is speaking very clearly and definitely to me. Lately, Oswald Chambers has been a constant companion and vehicle of delivery of what God wants me to remember. Here’s what God placed in my line of sight yesterday (emphasis mine):
“Belief in Jesus is a miracle produced only by the efficacy of Redemption, not by impressiveness of speech, not by wooing and winning but by the sheer unaided power of God.”
“Anything that flatters me in preaching of the Gospel will end in making me a traitor to Jesus; I prevent the Creative Power of His Redemption from doing its work.”- Oswald Chambers
I’m not a preacher. But I do have a calling and a mission that I must see through. My mission is this only: That others see Jesus in me, in the words He has given and that I may give a good account of myself every day to Him. For that’s really all that matters!
PS: if this doesn’t give you goosebumps I don’t know what will! As I was editing and adding the underscores to the words in the OC quote for emphasis, I could not get all of them to conform to one thin narrow line. In my document the words ‘only’ and ‘prevent’ have a thicker heavy underscore that I could not fix to look like the others. So- Message from the Holy Spirit- “This is important!” At least for me, it is. Please tell me I’m not the only one these “messages” come to???!!!!