While I’m on vacation in Florida, I’ll recycle a few old posts. Here’s one of my posts in my “Spiritual Perils of Blogging” series:
This is the second in my “Spiritual Perils of Bogging” series. Today I focus on Envy.
Envy is a danger inherent in any “public” work. As an academic, for example, publication is the coin of the realm. All academics compete for space in the presigious journals within their fields. It can be extraordinarily difficult to appreciate the work of other academics without thinking “why should he have gotten this great article placement — I could have done it better.” Sometimes there’s a temptation to criticize and discredit others out of envy. This is particularly the case early in an academic career when life is “publish or perish.”
The same dynamic can apply, I think, in the blogsphere. I know I’ve thought many times, “why does so-and-so get all that traffic? He doesn’t say anything remarkable. I should be the guy mentioned in Hugh Hewitt’s book, not him.” The motivation for maintaining and promoting a blog can become more to compete than to participate in a conversation.
Most of us in the “tail” of the faith-based blogsphere will need to make peace with the fact that we will never get to the fat part of the traffic curve. Maybe sometimes we “tail-ers” will have more of substance to say than the “big guys,” but our responsibility is to keep saying it as well as we can and to make it available as best we can. If God has plans to expand the influence of my little blog He’ll accomplish them, and if He doesn’t, I’ll try to be faithful to whatever His purposes might be.
For those of us who name Christ as Lord, our blogs, like anything else, are His to use as He sees fit. There’s no place, then, for any of us to envy the “success” of other bloggers. “Success,” after all, shouldn’t be counted in page hits, unique visits, or Instapundit mentions, but in faithfulness.
3 replies on “Spiritual Perils of Blogging”
Amen. If one is blessed we all rejoyce..lol..easier said than done sometimes.
I was always a trailer…even in school. I think I have gotten used to it.
Ha, yes. Envy can rear it’s ugly head even in the blogoshpere (a term I’ve always liked).
Though, I usually don’t get envious of my fellow bloggers, but I do get discouraged sometimes by lack of comments or conversation about something. Blogging is a neat thing, but sometimes it can feel like your talking to a wall. Dah well, I love it, and will continue to do it.
Later,
Mike.
Professor of Prophet?
It’s quite amazing that God can use a person’s “recycling” to speak to his children. Just last night I was thinking “Who am I? What is so important about me or what I have to say that my thoughts need to be posted on the internet?” No one reads my blog, anyway, so I thought “Why not quit?”. I also considered other Christians who were more insightful than I am, who I do not think would have the audacity to even start a blog of their own.
But after reflecting on this post, I realize my job is just to continue along in this endeavor and let God do what he will with it.
Thanks Prof! A blessed trip to you and your family 🙂
Nader