I haven’t posted anything here for over a week. At the risk
of sounding like Eeyore, I don’t think anyone even noticed. You see, our family went on vacation last
week. We don’t get to do that too often,
and we didn’t go far. But thanks to my
folks' generosity we had a wonderful little break.
During that time, I posted nothing on this blog, checked
email and facebook only once or twice…and the world went on. Makes me wonder about the significance and
relevance of all this stuff, as well as my own significance and relevance.
Of course, it’s not just the internet. Quite frankly, while some of our friends and
folks at church missed us, their lives weren’t really affected in a dramatic
way by our absence during the week. Hopefully,
were the absence to become permanent, a few folks might notice a bit more, but…
I’ve been doing this blog thing for about four years now. I’m not as prolific in posting as many, but
once or twice a week I come up with something. Over the course of those four years it’s added
up to over 400 posts. And yet, I wonder
if any of those have really added to the issue of my significance and relevance
in this life. In addition I usually find time to post something on
facebook at least once a day, but again, no one’s life was altered by the
absence of those posts.
Now don’t misunderstand.
I’m not having a pity party for myself. I’m just appreciating the reminder that none
of us are nearly as important as we think we are. To be quite honest, without sounding cruel, I’m
not sure my own life is any less enriched because I didn’t read all those other
blogs I usually read, or the facebook updates of others that I missed out on.
Again, I’m not trying to be cruel. I enjoy many blogs, and have learned much from
so many. I really do enjoy hearing many
of the things going on in the lives of my “friends”, and I think facebook and
things like it are helpful tools to some degree.
I’m just wondering, if your life wasn’t altered by my
absence from this blog, and my life wasn't radically changed by missing out on my regular
internet reading, then just how significant and relevant can all this be?
Once again, don’t misunderstand. I’m not trying to disparage the work of
others. I know that there are some
wonderful things being written out there, things I enjoy, things I learn from. And I’d like to think that one or more of my
own posts has offered some encouragement, prompted some thought in others.
But I’m thankful for the reminder that while we each have
value, and God has a plan and a purpose for each of us; in the overall scheme
of things, I’m just not that important. At least not here.
My real significance and relevance is as a husband and
father. My real impact is felt in that
small circle. Hopefully, some impact is
also felt in the larger circle of our church family. And again, maybe once in awhile God has used
my meandering thoughts to some benefit elsewhere. But outside my own family, my significance and
relevance dwindles mightily.
I plan to continue writing here. It’s more for my own catharsis than anything.
It helps me to organize my thoughts,
vent a bit now and then, and so on. I’ll
still continue to check up on folks through facebook, read my favorite blogs,
etc.
But I think my attitude about these things has greatly
changed. No longer will I feel any need
to keep up some schedule because I think someone out there might hang on my
words. No longer will I feel I have to
read every blog out there about every subject. No longer will I feel I have to keep up with
everyone else’s business, nor share my own on social media.
It’s all in good fun, but in the overall scheme of life it’s
rather insignificant and irrelevant; just like me.
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