Living Life Online
// June 25th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Dave (personal)
Living life online has its positives and negatives. I think transparency is a big part of what will cause people outside of the faith to realize that Christians are still people just like they are. Knowing we struggle with things even though we profess to know Christ (Just as the Apostle Paul did) helps others see we are not hypocritical–it just makes us human. However, the transparency and openness online lets others think they know you. It lets others have information that they may use against you.
Writing open thoughts in a public forum such as this blog is quite different than posting something anonymously. My name and persona is attached to every blog I post. I’ve felt that being who I am online as I am in-person would help bless others and let them get to know my thoughts even though we may never meet face-to-face. Additionally, blogging tends to be therapeutic for me. I get to write out my thoughts and hope that by sharing them it may encourage someone else or let them know some of my pain as a warning to not do as I have done.
The negatives of living life online have begun to make me a little weary. Fortunately, I have yet to find anyone that has sent a negative remark to me on any of my blog posts, and some of what I post could easily be considered controversial. Through grace I have escaped a lot of things that could discourage me through being open and honest in my writing. Today am I beginning to question whether much of what I write is just becoming noise in the blogosphere. I’m wondering if trying to post every day, or at least 4-5 times per week makes sense any more. Heck, even this post is me being public in something that probably didn’t need to be made public.
I’ve decided to scale back a bit on my blog. It’s something I told myself I was going to do earlier this year. Rather than write out thoughts that may just add to the clutter and noise (see Kem Meyer, I am trying to be faithful to your brand) I’ve changed my perspective and am going to start a personal journal. It goes against a previous post I made here, but it just feels like the right thing to do now. In the past, the more I engaged in the better I could think and see through a lot of stuff. The more transparent I was, the more people could see me as being real or relevant. However, at this point in my ministry, I feel I need to step back from a few things and this blog will be one of those things. Less frequency and more focus means less clutter, less noise. Writing thoughts in a personal journal still offers the therapeutic benefit without the risk and hazards of being online so much and thus not lending to all of the noise that already exists.
I’m going through a lot of transition and change and I feel as if God is directing me through a narrow, blind curve on my life’s journey. If I get distracted by everything I see along the side of the road, I will veer off course and crash. If I focus on the road in front of me it is a little unsettling to not be able to see ahead of the curve. However, this is where I am and it is for a reason. It is time to shed some things that have been important in order to be more faithful to ministry and to my family. I can’t do everything that time allows and I won’t do things for the sake of making others happy.
Repeat after me: Less clutter, less noise. Less clutter, less noise. Less clutter, less noise. I promise this time.
