It’s Friday. My brain’s pretty dead–just ask my 7th period students about my blurring and slurring of words! But the desire to post is alive and kickin’.
I don’t really know much at all about Seth Godin, though apparently he is what some might call a “big deal”. At least in the realm of entrepreneurship/business/marketing/etc. I visited his blog today because Tim Challies linked to him. (In perusing Godin’s blog, I was amused to see that he had his own post–humorously titled “These Bullets Can Kill”–on the NYTimes’ Power Point article featured in Wednesday’s post here.)
Not everything about Godin’s passions is really my shtick (that I’ve seen so far, anyway). But I appreciate his incisive, well-communicated observations. And today, while looking through his entries, I found a helpful nugget on the motivation and transaction of blogging:
Online…, I’m not sure the [investment return] math is so obvious. You don’t write a blog to get gigs…Sure, that might happen, but that’s not why you do it. If you are busy calculating quid pro quo, that means your heart isn’t in it, and the math won’t work out anyway.
Online, the something, the quid, the *this*, doesn’t cost cash. It takes heart and energy and caring, which are scarce but renewable resources. As a result, many people are able to spend them without seeking anything external in return. Even better, the act of generosity, of giving without expectation, makes it easier to do art, to create work that matters on its own.
. . .
And now thoughts from someone completely different. Gary Lucas, at Wrestling with an Angel, blogs about “lessons in the life of a father learned through the struggles of his disabled son”. I heartily encourage you to read last Friday’s post about an overwhelming blast of God’s grace during his typically exasperating experience of bathing his 17-year-old son.
I found this last week within one of his posts. His reflections mix helpfully with Godin’s above–I need to be reminded of these things as I continue to venture out in the online writing/faith community:
Sometimes we are so concerned about what other people think and about our outward appearance, that we forget the message we are to deliver. And make no mistake, every parent of a disabled child has a message. It is a message of humility, dependence and grace. And from time to time we need someone to point out our pride so that our message will be more authentic.
Our message to the world is not, “I have it all together and I can handle anything that comes my way”. The message that should be preached by every parent of a disabled child is, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength”. There are many other messages that follow, but all originate from the strength of God given to weak people for the magnification of His fame.
We carry this message to make much of God, not ourselves. And in making much of God, we allow people to experience His grace and love through us.
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I Find/I'm Found 