Often I find myself struggling to get the words out. Are they the right ones? Does it make sense? Will people like it? Maybe if I turn a phrase this way it’ll get more retweets.
The old perfectionist rises looking to claim the title of best and better while the people-pleasing wallflower stands in the corner, arms crossed against chest, eyes darting back and forth wondering, Am I good enough? Did I do it right? Will they like it?
It is so easy to get distracted by all the peripheral in the blogging world, but only one thing matters and it’s the first thing that should matter–Him.
You know the whose hands you’ve placed your life in? Yes, Him.
I’ve found that when Jesus is my focus and my joy the writing becomes so. much. easier. It’s as if I’m wearing blinders and trotting down the road with the path straight and clear.
Ann asked beautifully at Relevant last year,
What is success for a blogger?
25, 000 hits a day, thousands of dollars of ad revenue, a book contract and a movie deal? Is success measuring your self-worth in subscribers?
Whether as a blogger, or a mom, or a wife, or a single young woman, we keep striving and we keep straining and we keep struggling and we keep seeking success – but what IS success? (…)
You are a successful blogger, the most successful blogger, from the very first day you ever posted, if you simply do it as an act of loving service unto Jesus.
That. That is what you need to remember.
This big, wide world of blogging, for the faith-walker, is rubbish compared to knowing Christ and if we sacrifice the knowing Christ for a bigger, better blog that meets the world’s criteria for success then we have lost so much.
If we trade knowing Christ, if we lose sight of his purposes–even in blogging–then, we have lost knowing Him.
It saddens me when I see women straining and struggling for more links, greater publicity, and writing content that is not authentic to who they are just so they can get a following.
I know this because I have been this woman. I have cried over my blog. I know some will probably laugh at that, but I know I’m not the only one. I have struggled and sin has come out in me so strong, because I had set my sights on something less than Christ.
Jesus—He is our life and our eyes should be glued on him.
When I get wrapped up in the numbers, the money, and the popularity of blogging my eyes drop and I breathe heavier…I’ve lost my sight and the purpose. I become a slave instead of a servant.
In the upside down kingdom, you serve so you are not a slave.
When you are a servant to God alone, you aren’t enslaved by the masters of this world, self, status, satan. In the upside down blogging kingdom, we blog to serve God alone so we are released from the bondage of numbers. And in the upside down blogging kingdom, we do not keep taking our own David-like census.
– Ann Voskamp, 6 Things Every Blogger Needs to Know
Whatever your niche, whatever you write about, however you serve your readers…first and foremost, you write and serve the Lord. The life of every believer should be an out-pouring of worship.
When I’m struggling I set this reminder at the top of my draft in the largest, boldest letters,
Come to the Altar and Leave it All Bare.
That’s all I can do. That’s all I’m asked to do. I can’t be everything to everyone. I can’t be the best blogger. I can’t be the most gifted wordsmith, but I can be a servant. I can be obedient to come and write for Him.
And so I come to this altar, right here, and I type words across a screen. I lay down my life and say, “Lord, your words, not mine.”
I write because he has called me and when I do the striving ceases and no matter how well my post may or may not be I’m satisfied and filled with joy because I have found the contentment of living in service.
If you’ve struggled with blogging, may I suggest…
Ann Voskamp’s keynote speech from Relevant ’10 – You can find it in three parts on her blog (and even the audio): Why Blog? Being an Upside Down Blogger, What is Success? Life in the Upside Down Kingdom, and 6 Things Every Christian Blogger Needs to Know.
Kristen Welch (of We are THAT Family) - Why We Don’t Need More Followers
Jesus isn’t desperate for more followers. He is desperate to make the dead alive.
Jon Acuff (of Stuff Christians Like) – The Tell
Do you ever think about what an ineffective communicator Jesus was? Think about it. He could have been speaking to 5,000 people every night. [...] Instead, he wasted his time at dinner with 12 people.
April, a life-long friend of mine (we have literally known each other since diapers), shared this in the comments yesterday,
I think blogging as ministry has to be a calling. [...] if you are called to blogging as a ministry, you have to be content to let God make it what He wants. Yes, you can use the tools that are available to get the word out, but at the end of the day, if it’s God’s ministry, He’s going to take it where He wants. You could take the control yourself and make it go where you want, and maybe get what you want out of it (financial success, recognition, whatever), but I think the point of a ministry is to let God make it into what He wants.
The words come like whispers off the page. It’s slow and steady…sure. Spoken with the humble confidence of one who has struggled deep and met Jesus in the midst. As the pages turn, I imagine her soft voice sharing each story.
