WHY am I blogging?

Though I am sure that I am NOT the first one to contemplate the question of blogging within a blog, I'm going to boldly strike out on this pursuit and delve into my personal motivations for casting my private thoughts and feelings into a virtual "sea of ideas."  Am I different from most or all bloggers?  Does blogging afford me the opportunity of sharing my feelings without fear or worry of retribution of any sort?  Is blogging akin to ego centrism - where one basks in the glory of personal thought and wisdom?  Is blogging necessary?  Is there anyone who really needs to hear from me?  Does blogging have the ability to make me (or anyone else) happier?

According to John M. Grohol, Psy.D., writer for World of Psychology, blogging CAN make you happier.  Taiwanese researchers (Ko & Kuo, 2009) administered a 43-item self-report survey to 596 college students who were mostly between ages 16 and 22 and female (71 percent).  The college students were young adults who had blogging experience, and specifically with blogging for the purpose of keeping a personal journal.

The researchers found support for deeper self-disclosure from bloggers resulting in a range of better social connections.  These included things such as a sense of greater social integration, which is how connected we feel to society and our own community of friends and others; an increase in social bonding (our tightly knit, intimate relationships); and social bridging — increasing our connectedness with people who might be from outside of our typical social network.

They also hypothesized and found support from their data that when these kinds of social connections increase or grow deeper through blogging, a person will also feel a greater subjective sense of well-being or happiness.

This research is consistent with prior research on personal writing (usually more privately, though) that finds that when people share their innermost thoughts of their moods or feelings with others through writing, they may gain greater social support and improve their social relationships and feelings of connectedness.  There isn’t a whole lot of research into blogging, so this study is a valuable contribution to our knowledge and understanding of this behavior.

The researchers also reminded us that since most people who read personal blogs are a person’s own friends and family, it’s likely that self-disclosure on those blogs will help them improve these existing relationships.  Not only does blogging not diminish or interfere with existing social relationships, the researchers argue, but it enhances them and has the ability to actually improve them.

I’ve seen this time and time again with some of my friends’ blogs — they share feelings and thoughts that I’d have a hard time getting from them in person.  Especially since many times people blog as they’re going through an emotional or difficult situation in their lives.  It’s so much easier to blog about it as it’s happening than to try and call and talk to a half dozen close people by phone, repeating the same information and feelings time and time again (which can result in an emotional drain).

Blogging, for me, is somewhat of a spiritually transcendental activity.  It draws me into a spiritual journey in which I seek the communion and fellowship of the Holy Spirit.  Here, let me cast a few "visual analogies" into the mix to see if I can conjure some applicable "images."

Blogging is like calling into a wide canyon and listening for the softer sound of an echo.  In this, the echo has a greater resounding truth than the initial cry.  Blogging allows me to herald my innermost thoughts and feelings, but it's the echo of His voice that speaks the truth for me.  David's Psalms would have made excellent blogs, for it was in his private contemplations that he knew and understood the still small voice of God - the truths that echo across the plains of time with undiminished clarity.

Blogging is like a message in a bottle.  In casting our thoughts and feelings into the waves of earthly babble, who do we expect will process our renderings?  It's the same response yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  Blogging is not like casting our cares upon the wind, or broadcasting our seeds upon the blustering rants of daily existence.  No.  Blogging is (and should be) prayerful - meditative - spiritual.  Through blogging I am casting my cares upon the Lord, who echos my groanings with a decisive voice of grace, mercy, and provision.

Blogging is cathartic.  The writing of a blog for me is somewhat laborious, for the physical nature of my being hardly keeps time with the spiritual/emotional nature of my being.  But typing my thoughts - as quickly as I am able to do so - and going back over them to make sure they convey some intended message, is like placing my earthly petitions before the throne of God.  In that sense, blogging is (for me) therapeutic, liberating, beneficial, healing, energizing, invigorating, restorative, curative, emotive.

Blogging is appointed.  I save this one for the last for it's the MOST important.  Bro. Dan Spencer dedicates quite a bit of pulpit time in bringing forth the message that we - as the church - have got to increase and galvanize our message to the world that Jesus Christ is the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE.  Because we are living in a dark time and in a dark world where the fields are white and ready for harvest, we must increase our boldness in sharing the good news of Christ through our lives, our words - our living testimony.

And that is my prayer, dear friends.  May my ramblings rise before the throne and become as sweet and fragrant exaltations to my heavenly Father.

May the words from my mouth and the thoughts from my heart be acceptable to you, O LORD, my rock and my defender.  Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation.  Give heed to the voice of my cry, my King and my God, for to You I will pray.  My voice You shall hear in the morning, O LORD; In the morning I will direct it to You, and I will look up and see Your face.

Selah (סֶלָה )