Blogging Balance

One of the tensions about being a blogger is attempting to balance happy and sad posts. Ideally, the sad posts will have redemptive elements. Pure sadness without the response of hope in the Gospel is just plain old death. Another tension is how much of my own struggles, particularly as they involve other people, should become common fodder. I have a right and a write to tell my own story. It gets dicier if I start telling someone else's story, particularly if such a person would not want the issue to be aired publicly. Best to be vague. Add to that, the proclivity to slant the scales of the story to present myself in the most favorable light. Yes, I do that.


If it is a happy post, then it should be based on something truly good. There is a devotional that I read occasionally where the writer once extolled improvements to his golf game as a sign of God's faithfulness and another time where he illustrated an answer to prayer with his teen daughter finding and purchasing the cutest car in just the right color. Nothing wrong I suppose with either one of those things. However, it sounded more like God being a doting grandpa or golf pro in the sky. Really? Pretty damn shallow. I am sure devotionals like this are quite depressing for those faithful folks looking to put daily bread on the table and not a white ball into a cup as a duffer or getting enough money together for tomorrow's bus ride. We have to be careful with our praises, they must not be be just sanctified self-congratulations and the musings of the upper middle class. This writer often has good things to say, he just seems to lack some sensitivity to how others less fortunate might perceive his thoughts.

Paul admonished believers to rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn for those who mourn. Because I am never certain who is reading my blog, the best I can do is present both.  



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