benchmark

Here we are! This is the 100^th post on this blog. Whether you are a browser or commenter, I appreciate you for sojourning with me.

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Though many other bloggers have posted much more, it seems like some kind of reflection is in order, doesn’t it? I feel like this is a good place to pause and contemplate; “What have I learned so far?”

There are different ways to blog, and I have always had a vision that this would be an expression of community. To that end, I am quite content as I look back on the journey.

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It has been a goal to speak the truth in love and maintain the type of environment where people engage freely in dialog, but at the same time, being careful to avoid unnecessarily harshness and circular or unresolvable conflict. (I have had to apologize a few times, but not a lot.) 1^st Timothy 4:6 talks about a different kind of craver: “…he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions…” I don’t ever want to be that kind of craver!

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One of the hardest lessons has been on the subject of letting go. For example, Wanting to say a lot, I would select just a portion and leave the rest, hoping somebody brings it up in a comment or maybe I could address it on a future post. Or seeing that someone has not been persuaded to see things my way, I simply accept that we are not on the same page at this time and move on to the next post. Or wanting badly to burrow into the blogosphere, reading and commenting instead of eating, sleeping, mowing the lawn… there comes a point, when I just had to trust that they would still be there whenever I got around to their blogs.

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There's more that I wanted to say, but I'll let it go, and save it for later.