 I have been journaling for thirty years now. I have a trunk full of varied notebooks that I keep well packed away. They are part record-keeping, part therapy, part prayer. In some ways they are all prayer: as I have poured my life onto the page, the disappointing and awkward parts, the joys and hopes, grace somehow works its way into the words. Somewhere between my mind and my pen, God's spirit works to bring occasional beauty and order out of my thoughts. It is like wringing grace from the details of my day.
For the last many months, however, I have been journaling online
in my blog, 33namesofgrace.blogspot.com. "Blog" is short for
"web log" and is a form of online communication that has evolved
in recent years. I write commentary on public events, describe what
is happening at church, list details of my day, post pictures of the
weather, include prayers and poetry. I add links to other blogs and
websites I like. I belong to groups of bloggers that create internet
communities across the world.
The important thing to remember with a blog is that it is very public.
Anyone with a web browser can read anyone's blog at any time and
can usually leave comments. Blogs are the thoughts of one person, but with commentary from anyone who passes through. I am very aware as a pastor that, as I write on my blog, people from my congregation may read it, as well as fellow United Methodists, friends from outside the church, my family, and many strangers as well.
So blogging is immensely public. But blogging is also much like journaling; it is still prayer. It may even be a spiritual discipline for me. It is the place where I try to take the complications of ministry and parenting and life in general and organize a narrative out of it. It is the place where I list the odd and lovely details of my days and try to wring grace from them.
For example, when I preach a funeral sermon, I preach to the family's grief. But in my blog, I discuss my own grief of losing this
parishioner. In writing I experience grace, because God is working somehow in the writing. But then the blog adds a new twist — other people come and tell me their stories, other clergy tell me about losing their people. People offer compassion and insight, or just say, "lovely post." Or I write a list of random things I am grateful for that particular day, and seventeen people add their own list to mine.
I'm not quite sure where blogging falls in the order of the practices
of Covenant Discipleship. It is sometimes justice, sometimes compassion, always devotion, and it is always public. In any case it is becoming, for me, a spiritual discipline, and it is, like everything else we discuss in Covenant Discipleship, an avenue for God's grace.
To sample other United Methodist blogs visit the methoblog at
www.methoblog.onlywonder.com/content.
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