A shift in the blog
27/07/14 04:57
Today I am starting a new experiment with my blog. I am hoping to live more intentionally in my relationship with technology and to make a slight shift in my personal spiritual disciplines. The result may be rathe subtle for regular readers of the blog. It may even be rather subtle for me. Since about 2007, I have gotten up in the morning and begun my day by scanning the headlines from news sources from around the world, primarily places to which I have a connection of some sort. Then I would write a thousand-word essay. Often my essays were inspired by the news stories. Other times, I would have a general topic in mind and use the computer to do some research on that topic. My writings were always personal essays. I never got into writing research papers. But topics were often farther from my personal passion and interests. Some days it was hard for me to decide a topic.
From a personal point of view, however, this made me rather dependent upon the connections of the Internet. Over the years, of course, there were plenty of days when I was in a location where I had no Internet access. On those days, I continued to write the blog and then publish it when I got to a place where I could connect. Most of those times, I was traveling and my blogs were sort of modified travelogues with information about the place where I was visiting. It hasn’t been that long since Internet access was reserved to designated places in hotels. I remember before wireless connections were regularly available. I used to get up and go to a hotel business center to plug in with a cable. I’ve written more than a few blogs in hotel lobbies to avoid disturbing a roommate.
I have decided that for a while at least, that I will make the writing my first priority. It is my intention to avoid looking at the cell phone and the web browser first thing in the morning - to reserve those activities for after I have written. It should make a couple of differences in my essays. First of all, it should mean that my writing is more personal - more of a journal of my life and the things that are most important to me. Secondly, it should reflect ideas that have had a little while to mature. Instead of responding to the latest headline, I’ll be writing about things that I’ve been thinking about for some time.
Another shift - and I don’t know if this will make more of a difference or not - is that I am going to try to wean myself from the word counter and having to have each blog entry the same length. I think that a thousand word personal essay is about the right length, but I know there will be days when I am more rushed than others. In the past, I would occasionally pre-write the morning’s blog in order to be able to get up and get going the next day. I may still do that from time to time, but I will simply publish it when it is written rather than hold it to be published the next morning for the appearance of consistency. On days when I am rushed or when I am focusing my attention on getting somewhere else, I intend to give myself permission to make a shorter blog entry. On days when there is a lot stirring in my imagination or thoughts, I plan to give myself permission to make entries at different times of the day. There may be more days when I write multiple times.
I am not abandoning the discipline of daily writing, but rather trying to shift the discipline to focus on my interior thinking and processing rather than my connection with the digital world with all of its distractions.
As I have said, the change may be rather subtle.
I am a person of many habits. The ones I like, I tend to label “spiritual disciplines,” and nurture them. The blog is an outgrowth of our 2006 sabbatical. I stared being very intentional about my writing during that break from the routine and later I decided to turn it into a spiritual discipline and to publish the writings in this blog. Now, over 2.5 million words later I think it is time for me to shift my attention away from counting words and producing words for the sake of the count. I plan to give more attention to what the words say and how they reflect the spiritual journey of a pastor.
I still have boundaries. There are parts of my personal life that I intend to keep personal. There are many stories that I encounter ion my work as a pastor that are not mine to tell. Keeping confidence with those I serve is essential not only to my job, but also to my identity and integrity. But I do hope that this blog will reflect a bit more of the substance of my thinking and of the usually joyful process of theological thinking.
Thinking about God and keeping my mind open to a relationship forged in the work of God’s people is not just a process reserved for the halls of academia and the development of systematic theology papers for education. It is, first and foremost, a lived experience. What I know about God is, indeed shaped by my academic studies. But those studies are always a bit theoretical. Living my life in the midst of God’s people gives me the opportunity to take those academic studies and apply them to the experience I have and the experiences of others.
And so a new adventure begins for me. Perhaps the most significant shift is not in the writing of the blog, but in the moving its position in my day. I doubt if anyone ever read this blog as a news source. it still may be a source of new ideas. I hope that some of the ideas will be a bit better formed - at least reflect things I’ve been thinking about for a few hours.
We shall see.
From a personal point of view, however, this made me rather dependent upon the connections of the Internet. Over the years, of course, there were plenty of days when I was in a location where I had no Internet access. On those days, I continued to write the blog and then publish it when I got to a place where I could connect. Most of those times, I was traveling and my blogs were sort of modified travelogues with information about the place where I was visiting. It hasn’t been that long since Internet access was reserved to designated places in hotels. I remember before wireless connections were regularly available. I used to get up and go to a hotel business center to plug in with a cable. I’ve written more than a few blogs in hotel lobbies to avoid disturbing a roommate.
I have decided that for a while at least, that I will make the writing my first priority. It is my intention to avoid looking at the cell phone and the web browser first thing in the morning - to reserve those activities for after I have written. It should make a couple of differences in my essays. First of all, it should mean that my writing is more personal - more of a journal of my life and the things that are most important to me. Secondly, it should reflect ideas that have had a little while to mature. Instead of responding to the latest headline, I’ll be writing about things that I’ve been thinking about for some time.
Another shift - and I don’t know if this will make more of a difference or not - is that I am going to try to wean myself from the word counter and having to have each blog entry the same length. I think that a thousand word personal essay is about the right length, but I know there will be days when I am more rushed than others. In the past, I would occasionally pre-write the morning’s blog in order to be able to get up and get going the next day. I may still do that from time to time, but I will simply publish it when it is written rather than hold it to be published the next morning for the appearance of consistency. On days when I am rushed or when I am focusing my attention on getting somewhere else, I intend to give myself permission to make a shorter blog entry. On days when there is a lot stirring in my imagination or thoughts, I plan to give myself permission to make entries at different times of the day. There may be more days when I write multiple times.
I am not abandoning the discipline of daily writing, but rather trying to shift the discipline to focus on my interior thinking and processing rather than my connection with the digital world with all of its distractions.
As I have said, the change may be rather subtle.
I am a person of many habits. The ones I like, I tend to label “spiritual disciplines,” and nurture them. The blog is an outgrowth of our 2006 sabbatical. I stared being very intentional about my writing during that break from the routine and later I decided to turn it into a spiritual discipline and to publish the writings in this blog. Now, over 2.5 million words later I think it is time for me to shift my attention away from counting words and producing words for the sake of the count. I plan to give more attention to what the words say and how they reflect the spiritual journey of a pastor.
I still have boundaries. There are parts of my personal life that I intend to keep personal. There are many stories that I encounter ion my work as a pastor that are not mine to tell. Keeping confidence with those I serve is essential not only to my job, but also to my identity and integrity. But I do hope that this blog will reflect a bit more of the substance of my thinking and of the usually joyful process of theological thinking.
Thinking about God and keeping my mind open to a relationship forged in the work of God’s people is not just a process reserved for the halls of academia and the development of systematic theology papers for education. It is, first and foremost, a lived experience. What I know about God is, indeed shaped by my academic studies. But those studies are always a bit theoretical. Living my life in the midst of God’s people gives me the opportunity to take those academic studies and apply them to the experience I have and the experiences of others.
And so a new adventure begins for me. Perhaps the most significant shift is not in the writing of the blog, but in the moving its position in my day. I doubt if anyone ever read this blog as a news source. it still may be a source of new ideas. I hope that some of the ideas will be a bit better formed - at least reflect things I’ve been thinking about for a few hours.
We shall see.