Another Dead Link...

Recently I've gone through a spate of blogs that I follow - in different ways - drop off and die. Either a little red exclamation mark pops up by their blog entry on my RSS reader, or in-activity spells the end, or simply there is nothing left to say.

Sometimes it is connected to a shift I've noticed in blog culture - a shift in emphasis from a blogging for "me" (personal thoughts and reflection) to a more blogging for "you" (an obligation to say something because people visit this site!). With this shift - unless it is particularly resourceful to my context - the blog dies as its intimacy wanes.

As I watch these blogs die I feel a sense of loss. Reading and being stretched by someone's thoughts and reflections sometimes from a completely different angle on life and theology has done me good. Finding people who are stimulating through their outlook on life, their understanding of God and church has encouraged me. When they are no longer there - it seems sad.

As I read their obituaries of why they no longer blog - I remind myself why I blog. I go back to my first blog and remember it is essentially for me, no one else, I write for me. I try not to write in order to influence or to impress. I write because I want to be able to look over my shoulders and look at the footprints of my journey as I reflect on mission. I write to stretch myself through my reflections. I write because I don't want to lose the lessons I am learning. I write to get things off my chest, to vent my feelings. I write for me.

It's great to have made good ' bloggy' friends - to have been challenged and comforted by those who have stumbled into URBANarmy and have taken time to comment. It's good to walk with people and to chat things over! But I blog for me.

Selfish?

But I am sure blogging for others would wear me out, grind me down and would steal the joy I have in keeping the lessons I learn alive.