Pray for me

 July was a hard month for me.

Ever since 2021 when I decided to leave Facebook, my writing style has been slowly changing.  Rather than writing sentence-long insights or one to two paragraph thoughts I have focused on writing long-form articles and even books.  I have sought to get into a rhythm of Spirit-led research, prayer and Biblically-based reflection on the subjects that I feel God is leading me to write about.

Probably the most prominent of these has been the subject of the integration between science and Holy Scripture which has led me to write the last 7 posts and is what I plan to continue to write about in future months.  I am attempting to take my calling to write – which I really do believe the Lord has given me – seriously even if I never become a popular or widely-read author.  I think we have a tendency to only think of famous people as being the ones who lead significant lives and in one sense its true – the more recognition that you have, the more reach and influence you have, which in turn makes the things you do more impactful to other people.

We have all heard the saying that “if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, did it really make a sound?”.  This idea seems to apply to any of us who seek to encourage and inspire other people in the faith.  In our scenario we would say “if a writer successfully removes the idea that science and the Christian faith are at odds with each other, but no one reads about it, did he really help anyone?”

But while we cannot deny that in order for the things that we write to actually help someone that we need people to read what we have written, it is also important to acknowledge that there is more to life than our linear impact upon the world.  In fact, impact can itself become an idol that we pursue at the cost of being faithful to God.  There is certainly a temptation to make little compromises – even strategic ones – that enable us to reach more people.  But our reach can become tainted, and our impact for God’s Kingdom spoiled, by these subtle agreements with the world.  It is certainly better to spend one’s entire life in ministry and make 1 disciple who is entirely sold out for Jesus no matter what comes in his/her life than it would be to make 10,000 converts to a shallow form of Christianity that causes them to fall away when their faith is challenged or when difficulty arises in their lives.

Sometimes less really is more and when it comes to having lasting impact for God it is significantly more relevant to be a part of producing a type of believer who is willing to lay down his entire life for Jesus than it is to be involved in reaching tons of people unto a shallow, superficial faith.

As such I make it my aim to be faithful in my calling to write. And honestly, I don’t really even understand my calling.  What does it mean that God wants me to write?  Why?  It's not that I feel that the world or the Church needs to hear stuff that I have to say.  I really don’t think it’s that.  To be honest when I reflect on why someone could be called to write in general – as I believe I have been called to do – its more about imparting something.  It's about imparting a hunger to know God, know His Word and understand the world.  And when I explore different topics – be it the integration of science and Scripture, or how certain periods of Church history could provide encouragement and instruction for us today – it's not so much about exposing my readers to new information as it is to inspiring others to go with me on a journey of knowing God and understanding the world.

As such I hope people don’t get caught up on points that we may disagree about.  Obviously Truth matters so I certainly welcome discussion about our differences, but I hope that my attempts to connect with the Creator of the Universe - both in prayer and through the study of the Bible - about the deep and pressing things of life inspire you to do the same.  May we all grow deeper in our love for Jesus as we seek Him for understanding of this world.

But July has been a hard month for me.  I’ve already got a lot of struggles and challenges in my life already but in this month, I was both bit by a snake and had an accident with a lawn mower.  The snake bite is mostly a fun story, but it was scary and left me with pretty bad poison sumac that I didn’t really recover from until last week.  And last week is when I had my accident with a lawn mower that has decimated my big toe and caused me to lose half of my pointer toe on my left foot.

I have never dealt with pain like this before so it would be a blessing if you could pray that God would give me a speedy recovery.  He is the Healer and I believe that no pain is too great for Him to take away.  Pray that He would take pain from my left foot.  And pray that I would grow closer to the Lord even in the midst of this challenging season.