Interaction

This blog doesn't always get a lot of comments (don't worry, this is not a guilt trip).

Every once in a while I worry about that a little. Am I not approachable or engaging? Are people not connecting with what I have to say? Is this a worthwhile thing that I'm doing?

I've been noticing a trend lately. I've been getting text messages and Facebook posts and emails and actual spoken words about this blog. People are finding something to connect with here, and they are responding. They just aren't always doing it publicly.

In a lot of ways, that means more than a comment, or a like. It takes more out of the person who is giving it. It is true interaction.

Sometimes, I will be having a conversation with someone and they will tell me about a thought that they had as a result of my blog. It will start a conversation and we will go deeper. The blog is sometimes the catalyst, the conversation starter, but it's not the point. The conversation is the point. The connection is the point.

I think that everyone struggles with this on some level. We live in a world with Facebook notifications and Twitter coming at us through our phones. We are notified every time someone "likes" something that we do, and the alternative, since Facebook has not stooped to the level of intentional meanness, is silence. If we are unliked, we don't see it, but we feel it's absence.

As people, we are constantly looking for feedback about whether who we are is good enough, and whether what we're doing is okay. The world is always telling us that we could stand to work out more or buy more make up or be more fun.

That's not what God says:

"You are altogether beautiful, my darling, and there is no blemish in you." (Song of Solomon 4:7)

"I have chosen you and not rejected you. Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. (Isaiah 41:9b-10a)

"Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are Mine!" (Isaiah 43:1b)

"For I satisfy the weary ones and refresh everyone who languishes" (Jeremiah 31:25)

"I will betroth you to Me forever; yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice, in lovingkindness and in compassion." (Hosea 2:19)

"As a shepherd cares for his herd in the day when he is among his scattered sheep, so I will care for my sheep and will deliver them from all the places to which they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day." (Ezekiel 34:12)

I certainly have my cloudy and gloomy days. I certainly look anxiously around me sometimes, I'm sure you do too. I hope that you will allow these words wash over you like a wave of truth. These are true things, this is what God says about us.

I love having the opportunity to communicate some of what the Lord has given me to say using this medium. I love that I can write something, and immediately it makes it out in front of other eyes, and sometimes bears the fruit of encouragement. But it is not the point.

God is the point.

Blessed be His name.