and the bubbles are about blogging.
Like I said in my last post, certain things in life have just seemed a bit...cluttered. Like there's just a lot of stuff. My blogroll has over 1,000 unread posts. I haven't read a facebook newsfeed in days. My email has 7,709 messages in the inbox. The inbox on my phone for texts is full every day.
In the past couple years of life I have made it a goal to live a decently simple life. I drive a simple car that is simply about to die a slow painful death. I live in a simple studio apartment that is simply...tiny. In order to live in a tiny space I am required to never acquire more than a tiny amount of stuff. This all helps keep life, well, simple. It keeps major decisions to a minimum. It keeps me from spending money on unnecessary items. (Well, in theory.) It keeps me from feeling overwhelmed. It helps keep me focused on the more important things.
I've realized that in my return from 6 weeks of being relatively detached from life, my brain has whirred and stirred and felt in complete overdrive and I realized it has much to do with the fact that my online life is anything but simple. It's messy. And now that I'm back in front of a computer for a better portion of the day, I can't ignore it.
So today I started simplifying, beginning with cleaning up the blog reader.
In doing so, I had to check my motivations for reading certain blogs. I couldn't help but wonder on numerous occasions, why was that ever there in the first place? I realized that often I was reading blogs of people that I know only from a distance and reading about their day to day life gave me a false sense of connection to them that doesn't really exist. And sometimes in conversation I would refer to them as if I know them...as if the things I had read on their blog, they had told me personally.
Weird.
So all those kind of blogs had to go. The next thing I realized that much of my blog reading was followed by judgment...I would read things others had posted and assuming their tone of voice, or purity of heart, would have decided that whatever they were thinking or feeling or had written was wrong. Or they were wrong for having published it for the whole world to see.
So any blogs that allowed my heart to feel that way, clouding what I know about (or don't know about) the actual person had to go.
Next on the list were mindless blogs...things that really serve no value other than a good way to waste time.
To be honest, I'm still working on whittling away at the list...still determining which of those that I read will be of value to my heart...which ones will serve to only encourage or edify, or which will help me to keep in touch with or interact with true friends. Friends that I may not see often, or maybe that I do see often. But people that I know and who know me and that I am confident actually want me to know what is going on in their lives.
All of that being said, in my hunt today, I rediscovered two blogs that truly are the example of which I compared all others to. One has an author that I know (but would not say that I am good friends with), the other has an author that I don't know. But what I so love about both of them is that both writers have a way of crafting all their words in such a way that they tell stories about their own lives, but the focus is never on them. The focus is always on glorifying and exalting the Lord. They use their lives as every day examples for what the Lord is showing and teaching them and there's not a post on either one that I've ever read that doesn't teach me something, or make me think about something differently.
I wish mine was like that...it's not. I know that. But I wish it was. Too often this is about me. It's about my stories. My pictures. My ridiculous experiences. And not enough is it about God and His story. But these two ladies have completely changed how I view and think about blogging and I wanted to share theirs with you...they are worth every minute of your time.
Cupcakes, Sprinkles, and other Happy Things
This blog belongs to the lead singer of AddisonRoad and it ALWAYS makes me laugh. And it ALWAYS makes me cry. And everything in between. But most importantly, it helps me fall more in love with the Lord and reminds me of the things that He is doing and the ways that He is working all over this country.
Thoughts From Fabs
This girl works at church and has a wisdom that I have literally never encountered in another female. I was lucky enough to be in one of her classes one time and she blew me away then with the Truth that she speaks and does it every single time she writes a new blog entry. She has a complete and total gift and I sincerely get excited every time I see she has updated...and then I cringe because I know whatever she wrote is going to wreck me out completely.
Happy reading!
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