{"id":811,"date":"2009-08-27T20:40:43","date_gmt":"2009-08-28T01:40:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/?p=811"},"modified":"2011-03-31T15:46:10","modified_gmt":"2011-03-31T19:46:10","slug":"new-directions-for-the-till-he-comes-blog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/new-directions-for-the-till-he-comes-blog\/","title":{"rendered":"New Directions for the TILL HE COMES Blog"},"content":{"rendered":"
This is my 300th Post! And with it, I have some changes to announce.<\/p>\n
Recently, I haven’t been posting much. I used to post once a day, but now I’m lucky to post once a month. Part of this is because of some things going on in my life right now, but most of it is\u00a0that I’m\u00a0dissatisfied with what I write.\u00a0I have 70 drafts sitting in my queue, just waiting for me to hit the “publish” button, but I just can’t do it.<\/p>\n
In pondering\u00a0why I have trouble publishing what I’ve written, I decided it is because what I’ve written in most of those 70 posts is not really worth saying.\u00a0At first I thought it was because I had\u00a0already said it, or somebody else\u00a0said\u00a0it better than me.\u00a0Then I realized that the real reason was\u00a0that most of my posts were for pride issues; I was trying to\u00a0sound smart, edgy,\u00a0and creative. The truth is that I’m none of those things. Yes, I read and think a lot, and work hard at learning, but I’m not what you would call a “wave maker.” I’m more of a “wave rider.” I ride along the waves that others create.<\/a><\/p>\n For a long time, I wanted to be a wave maker. As a child and teenager, I wanted to be an inventor. As a pastor, I wanted to lead the church in new directions, teach new ideas, attempt new things. But I eventually discovered that most of what I thought and taught was not original with me; I had picked it up from somewhere else. Sure, maybe I synthesized it, summarized it, or said it in a way that was new or creative, but wasn’t actually making or teaching anything revolutionary.\u00a0But that’s okay, because\u00a0people\u00a0seemed to learn from my teaching, and\u00a0I enjoyed it.<\/p>\n But I thought it wasn’t enough, so I set out to try to be a wave maker. Part of that attempt was this blog. Now I’ve come to realize that I am not a wave maker. I am a rider. And I’m good at it. Well, maybe I’m not so good, but I enjoy it. I love learning about the currants, and watching the wind play across the ripples of the sea. I get thrills out of trying some new approach on my board, and feeling it harness the power of the wave beneath my feet. I love the feel of the wind in my hair and the spray on my face as I hurtle toward shore.<\/p>\n This is me. This is who I am. This is what I love. I must embrace it.<\/p>\n By the way, I’ve never surfed in my life. So I am not talking about moving to California to become a “rider.”‘ Instead, I want to be a writer. Specifically, I want to study, teach, and write about Scripture. As I look over the last couple decades of my life, it is when I am studying, teaching, and writing about Scripture that I feel most content, most fulfilled, most at home, most connected with God and with who He made me to be. Remember in the movie “Chariots of Fire” when Eric Liddell said, “When I run I feel His pleasure”? Well, I feel\u00a0His pleasure when I study.<\/p>\n So how does this effect this blog? I have decided to give up trying to write creative and witty blog posts, and just go back to what I enjoy doing – studying Scripture and writing\u00a0about it. I am going to do this in two ways:<\/p>\n