Writing a blog

This evening I am going to speak at a writer's group in Canal Winchester about writing a blog.  Of course, I will talk about this blog - among others I have done.  I started this blog 15 years ago when I was working as the senior pastor at Karl Road Christian Church.  

Among other things, it has been a record of my life during those years.  I have written about vacations, the birth of grandchildren, the grief of losing my sister and my husband.  During this time I entered and completed the Wellstreams program and became a spiritual director. I retired from full time ministry, entered retirement, learned to play pickleball, worked part time at both a funeral home and a church.  It is a record of my experiences, reflections, struggles and joys.

I also wrote about books I have been reading, movies I have watched and television shows.  It is a record of family and church projects - the ordinary stuff of life as well as extremely holy and extraordinary experiences of a pastor's life.

It has  been a spiritual experience for me.  There were years when I wrote more and less. One year I wrote 131 posts and another year 39.  One year I wrote every day during Lent reflecting on the readings of the day and pondering God's work in the world and my life.  The heading on the blog says:  this is a creative outlet in a journey that is constantly intersecting the muddyness of life with the movement of the Holy Spirit.  I invite you to join me as I reminate on the walk to discern God's movement in the midst of the mess.

I reread my very first post that shared that this was a new (and public) way for me to process my life.  I wrote that this would be another venue for the God stories that are part of my daily life.  I also have spent a little bit of time just rereading posts from the past 15 years.  What a gift I have given myself by keeping this record.

One question is - why a blog - a public record?  And the answer is - I really don't know.  Except that I like the idea that someone else may enjoy and relate to the experiences of my life.  I tend to see everything with a sense of wonder about how God (spirit) is at work and it really has been an invitation to ponder with me.

My audience has - I think - ebbed and flowed over the years.  There are a few people who look to see what I am writing, but for others they may check in occasionally.  I used to get more comments than I do now - but some of that is because of the audience.  I know that if I put something on facebook, I will immediately get more readers for that post.  It doesn't really matter.  I just trust the process.

And the process is this:  I kind of wait to see what is bubbling up inside of me.  I write most mornings in a journal when I do the "Pray as you Go" ap.  Sometimes, there is something that seems important to work through on this blog.  Sometimes - like my last post - I have written something or read something I want to share, so I do.  Other times, there is an event in my life that I want to examine a little bit on paper and this is the result of that. I tend to write very quickly and that is why there are often typos.  It is what it is - a work in process - very much like the one who is writing.  Not ever finished but always a rumination along the way in this mysterious,  wonder- ful  and often messy life that is mine.

I find I like to end my writings with some kind of prayer or quote or something.  I often turn to the blessings of Maxine Shonk who usually says things better than I do.  So I will end  this blessing for creativity - which is really what it is all about.

May the God of CREATIVITY be with you,

helping you to brave new ground and test new horizons;

calling you to trust and risk being a co-creator of the Kingdom.

May the gift of creativity bring you to a recognition of ever new revelations of God's goodness.

May the blessing of CREATIVITY be on you.