Blogging

I keep reading articles about how to survive in the blogosphere. Authors with a gazillion followers share lists of how to gain a gazillion followers yourself and maybe even make a little money on the side through advertising.

Some of the suggestions have been helpful, like: decide what the point of your blog is and who it will be directed to. I like that one. The point will be whatever point I want to make and I'll direct it to whomever wants to listen. (Which, by the way, I recognize is NOT the point of the aforementioned suggestion.)

I haven't seen this suggestion yet, "Don't blog until you have something to say." I think that would be a good one. I seem to relate to that idea intuitively. I thought blogging would be something I would do weekly. Instead I do it weakly. Sometimes, I don't have anything to say. Sometimes, I have lots and lots to say, but it's not for other people to hear. Sometimes I have things to say that you don't want to hear (trust me on this.)

So here I am today. I just read Joel's blog where he mentioned (or at least implied) that he had not blogged since last April. I love Joel. When he writes, he has something to say. He wrote about how bugs, dragonflies in particular, hatching dragonflies specifically, remind him that all life in this world is dependent on death for life, but how Jesus broke the cycle and now life is dependent on Life once again for life. (My translation.) I just love this.

So here I am today. What do I have to say? Just this: God knows you. He knows where you are in life. He knows what your strengths are and he knows what your weaknesses are. He knows your sins, your guilt, your secret shame that no one else knows. He knows your hopes, your dreams, your ideals. He knows what makes you tick and what gives you fits. God knows your mind, your heart, your habits, and your hangups. God knows your past, yep, every single detail. He remembers stuff you've long ago forgotten. He knows your present. He knows you in the now, and he knows you in the later.

Name something you think God doesn't know about you. Go ahead, name something. Yessir, he knows. Come on, name something, anything you think is a mystery to God. Nothing's a mystery to the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. That's what those names for God are all about. He knows it all.

That knowledge, by the way, does not just make God real smart. It makes him really, really dangerous! How do you know what he might do with the knowledge he has? How do you know how he will respond to what he knows about you as he deals with you? Scary thought, huh!

God says, "I have loved you with an everlasting love." He loves us above and beyond, and bigger, and better, and wider, and longer, and taller, and higher than all he knows about us. God does not limit himself to what he knows about us in his dealings with us, he relies upon what he knows about himself, that he is love and he loves us with himself in spite of our selfs.

Yes, God will deal with us according to who we are. If we remain sinners bent on rebellion and self-indulgence, then, in love, he will deal with us accordingly. But if, by faith, we accept his evaluation of us, and leave our sin, our wickedness, our spiritual weakness and doubt at the cross where Jesus died for us, then he will deal with us, in love, as beloved children.

When I think about what God knows about me, I, like you, have cause to fear, but I am not afraid. I know that I am loved despite what God knows about me. I know that he chooses to love me first and foremost and forever. I know that if you will let him, he will love you the same way.

And I think like Joel does. The incomparable love of God in Christ Jesus is something worth blogging about.