Against Nothingness

Do you ever get tired of creeping people on facebook? Does the sound of chirping birds just gets to be too much to follow? If so, you can always get that little social media stalking fix by glancing down the sidebar of my blog. The observant reader will find there a librarything widget labeled "Currently Reading." Indeed, this is precisely what the widget contains; a list of books I am currently reading, complete with cover image. I do my best to keep my library thing account up to date, so while it may not be up to the minute, you can still know something about me that you can't find anywhere else. You may also find out, if you pay attention for long, that I read a lot. I do not say this to brag; it is just the way I am. I have read fiction as a fun hobby for as long as I can remember. I started reading non-fiction which was not part of a textbook in high-school, and I began to take joy in it by university. I have never looked back. Not only is it just the way I am, th...

December on my blog... fail.  Back at the end of November  I pretty much gave myself permission to not blog.  This was a singularly bad idea as that permission became my banner for the month.  I raised my head from the black depths of self-fulfilling prophecies briefly on the 9th with my only post of the month.   Shockingly, if I were to make a top 3 lists of post views in December, you would find it at the top.   What did I learn? That with no intention to write, it just doesn't happen.  That I find it very easy to fill my time with other things.  That I miss blogging and writing when I leave it for so long.  That blogging and writing are not  the same thing.  That preaching really does suck up a lot of energy.  So, nothing new.  When the last Advent Sunday passed I thought to myself, 'Hmm, maybe I will blog a bit before Christmas.'  I even started a post.  But let me tell you, nothing kills the creativ...

How can time move so fast?  Yet another month come and gone. Top 3 Most Visited Posts of November: 1. Mawwiage  - The number one post didn't 'win' by quite as much of a margin as last month, but still nearly double the #2 spot.  I guess my readers really like personal stories. 2. Antidisencouragementarianism  - The last of a three part series on encouragement; the other ones did well too. 3. Light in a Dark Tunnel  - At this point several posts were very close, but I am encouraged that one of my more theological posts is in the top three. Over the month of November I put up 20 posts (including this one).  Pretty much double my October posts.  And guess what? I didn't preach a single time this month, so my observation about preaching requiring a lot of my creative energy is holding true.  Which also means you probably shouldn't expect too much in December as I am preaching several times and in charge of the overall sermon series and adv...

Another month has come and gone.  What has happened around here? Top 3 posts of October: 1. "About You" By Dick Staub  - This was the clear winner, receiving nearly 1/5th of my site hits for this month.  Not only that, but they all came in like 2 days... I suspect someone with a much more popular site linked to me, but couldn't figure out who.  2. Encouragement  - the first of a 3 part series (yes, only 2 have been posted so far; one has been in my mind for a few weeks now; I just need to get to it).  3. Q13: Growing Up  - I guess people like to hear childhood stories, and think about maturing in life; I know I do.   In the past month I posted 11 times, and I have learned something about myself (that's your cue that what follows is highly introspective; you are invited in, obviously, since I am posting this, but that is what you are getting in to).   How often I post, and how much work I put into posting, is directly correla...