Happy Birthday to me!!!

This is NOT health food.

I’m composing this little post in the beauty of an autumnal morning.  The summer heat is beginning to succumb to the earth’s orbit, the last of the four “blood moons” has passed into history, and despite that occurrence, one of my more immediate concerns has been whether the bag worm epidemic is going to destroy my beloved sycamore tree.  The shallowness of that may be evidence enough of my state of mind, but there it is.

Of course, all that could change in an instant.  You know how life does.

So I’ll write this now and post it later, because I’m writing in celebration of my blog’s one-year birthday in January of 2016.  And maybe I’ll even read it myself.  Because here’s the thing: sometimes it’s tempting to wonder if you’re even making a dent.  So many voices, so many opinions, and with those come more options.  Who cares what I have to say, I mean, c’mon really?

And before that sentiment degenerates into a royal “why bother” pity-party, it’s useful to review the thoughts from some of the past “bloggers”. (Well, they would’ve been, had the internet been around.)  I find it most enlightening that I am in very good company on this topic:

“I replied, ‘But my work seems so useless!  I have spent my strength for nothing and to no purpose.   Yet I leave it all in the LORD’s hand; I will trust God for my reward.’” (1)

Hmmm….sounds like a perspective readjustment.  I frequently need those.  What’s my purpose for writing at all?  Is it for any kind of preeminence or recognition?  Or is it to have influence on the ones—and only the ones—that God chooses?  In other words, Who’s in charge here?  Pastor Lawrence Wilson reminds us that we are not in the business of outcomes, but ours is to obey what God calls us to, and leave the outcome in His hands.  That attitude positions me (mentally, emotionally, spiritually) to do what is in my heart to do without reflecting too much on “stats”, or lack thereof.  Success, as defined by the Heavenly court, is the message: “Well done, my good and FAITHFUL servant….”

Hey, all my fellow bloggers!  Here’s the encouragement for us, and let’s pay attention:

“It is the same with My word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit.  It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.” (2)

If God Almighty can keep this old planet heading in the right direction season after season, then I suppose He can send my blogs wherever He wants them to go, too.  Because it’s just not about me.

And THAT is a comforting thought.

Keep that bloggin’ comin’, dear friends!

• Isaiah 49: 4   Tyndale House Publishers Inc (2008-06-01). The One Year Bible NLT (One Year Bible: Nlt Book 2) (Kindle Locations 31754-31755). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition.

• Isaiah 55:11  Tyndale House Publishers Inc (2008-06-01). The One Year Bible NLT (One Year Bible: Nlt Book 2) (Kindle Locations 32072-32073). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition.