Thoughts After One Year

A little over a year ago, when I began this “Trying to Walk” blog, I had no idea how any of this would go. I’ve managed to stay in between an above modest success to a “gasping for air” failure that even my family dreaded reading. Whatever modicum of success I have managed to get a whiff of from time to time, I owe to those of you who have found these articles enjoyable, but more, worth your while, uplifting, encouraging, and maybe even educational sometimes. Thank you more than I can really express.

At this point I have written 65 blogs (I really prefer “articles.” “Blogging” sounds almost dirty. I mean something actually physically dirty, like jogging in mud, or something. I’m just too old fashioned, I guess.) I intended for Sept. 4, 2023, to be my first blog date but, due to my lack of mastery of websites and other high tech foibles, “Opening Thoughts,” with which I intended to lead was listed on Sept. 11. “Rational, or Irrational?,” which was intended to be my first real article on Sept. 4 was listed on June 3. After those two mistakes, I’ve gotten the dates right ever since.

This week, I just wanted to “chat” with you a bit. If you’re looking for deep and profound words of wisdom, but you keep coming here anyway (I’m so appreciative of you, really), this week will be a little more disappointing than most. My goal is to tell you why this “blog” exists, what prompted me to start it and what I’m hoping to accomplish - and yes, as vague as it may seem, I do have goals. So here is the first part of the story. I don’t know what the rest of the story is, yet.

The COVID fiasco brought a temporary end to most church activities. I was youth director at the time, but group meetings of any kind were frowned on and the best we could do was ZOOM. We didn’t do much for a while. My family started going to my aging parents house on Sunday morning to livestream a service with and for them. We barely had a connection with the church. The condition of my parents was such that during COVID, and continuing afterwards as well, my wife and I basically moved into their house full time. I sadly realized that I had to resign as youth director and give up the class I had been teaching. After a time, both of my parents passed on.

Back to assembling with the church, COVID over, I had no function. My parents were gone and I had no role in the congregation. I felt a tinge of rudderlessness, as those were two of my biggest anchors in life. Yes, I’m an old man, but I don’t mind saying I miss my parents. My father was a preacher, and our lives were centered on God and the church. (Oh, and road trips, but we’ll save that for later.) There was nothing else.

We were “there” everyime the doors were opened and many times when they weren’t. Our lives were about going to every church function that ever occurred, and visiting members when nothing was occurring. I remember traveling 55 miles (Missoula to Seeley Lake) through a Montana snow storm in the dark with my dad to conduct what used to be called a “cottage meeting” with a family interested in Bible study. I was actually attacked by a cat, no really, not exaggerating, at a home Bible study in Minneapolis. I remember getting up (honestly, I don’t remember the getting up part) at 4 AM to travel with my dad (in a Nash Metropolitan!) from Minneapolis to Winona, MN, so he could preach for that small congregation on a Sunday morning.

When I went to college, the only jobs I had any idea about were preaching and teaching. By the time I was through with college, I had a few degrees, but my first was Bible. What else would I do? By the way, yes, I’m bragging about my parents. But please understand, I’m not bragging about me, because I am just the product of what they helped me become. I was lucky, not good.

After a lifetime of involvement in God’s church and with His people, I had no role, and was performing no functions. I had been told that I could write well, and I thought if so, I should be doing it to draw people closer to God. There was this Parable of the Talents, you know. So that is how this blog came to be. But that’s too much about me.

Let’s talk about the blog. (I refer you to “Opening Thoughts,” for more information about what I’m trying to accomplish here.). I’ve had a few articles get over 200 readers. The average number of views per article is about 100. There are a few articles that have not topped 60 readers. I clearly have little understanding of what people will or won’t read. Articles I thought were very good and would get many views have turned out to be duds, and vice versa. I write for the content and hope for the views.

What is my biggest disappointment from doing this blog? Let me first say that this is not about me. I do this as a servant of the Lord hoping to strike the fancy of someone who is struggling in their walk with Christ and bring them into the fold, or closer to the Savior. I’ll never know if that happens. But I know it has a better chance of happening when Trying to Walk is more widely distributed. I am producing content that needs to be shared with people. My biggest disappointment is how little Christian people will share these articles with others.

If you think they have messages in them that others need to hear, as I do, then please share them. Copy the link and paste it to a text. Send it as an e-mail. Copy and paste it on Facebook. I’m not feeding my ego watching viewer numbers rise. Why that is important to me is that more viewers correlates to a higher number of people reading the message, and I, of course, think the message has value.

There are many different messages that are useful to be sent. Some will be solid gospel messages. Some will be about doctrinal purity. Many will deal with moral issues. Others will be about grounding one’s life in God’s will. To hold people’s interest there must be a variety and I might not always discuss your favorite subject. But this is a place for Biblical messages and that’s what you will find here. Help me get them passed on to more people who need to hear them.

Thank you.