Blogging as a Spiritual Discipline

This week I have been rereading a book that meant a lot to me in the past, but that I have not read in years.  Until this last week, I did not even have a copy of it any more. The book is Richard Foster's Celebration of Disciplline.  Of all the books I have ever read, it has probably made the most sense as to why we should live disciplined lives of prayer,  study, and simplicity.   Spiritual disciplines, Foster says, are not essential to the Christian life,  they are the Christian life. To pray and to seek God is what it means to sow to the Spirit. Without great stretches of quiet and inner meditation,  our lives quickly become superficial and valueless, out of control and out of bounds, like kudzu growing amok in a field.  

 I have discovered a new spiritual discipline may be as important to my spirit as any of the others--blogging. 

This may seem strange, and I do not suggest for a moment that what is true for me is true for others.  For me though  blogging may be just as important as prayer or Bible study. Here's why.

For a long time I've  known that God made me a writer and communicator.  The only way I can keep my thoughts organized and focused is if I express them.  Otherwise my ADD mind runs in all directions. Without expressing my thoughts , feelings and ideas, they turn into inarticulate mush.  I have to express them to keep them.   That is why I keep a journal, off and on.  I hope to heaven no one ever sees it, because the thoughts I put there are private,  and I intend to keep them that way.  

But I am also aware of my own hesitancy when it comes to communicating.  I am essentially a shy person, afraid of conflict, and prone to keep things to myself.   I guess that's one reason I am a preacher--a selfish reason, to be sure, but also a God-given expression of who I am and what He wants me to be.  I identify with what Paul wrote, when he said "woe unto me if I do not preach."  Sometimes I know how Paul felt.  

I don't find it easy to express myself sometimes. If you've read my blog, you know there are large gaps in the timeline. I  can put up two or three entries in a week, then go two months with nothing.

There are many reasons for these gaps. One of them is time.  When I am busy or preoccupied, nothing comes to mind.  Actually, that is not as often as I pretend.   I could find time, if I wanted to.

A second reason is that so many of my ideas to write about fall close to the line of what I should say and what I should not.  I'm never quite sure where that line is, so I  write nothing for fear I  might unintentionally offend  (If I intentionally offend, I have no qualms about that.)

A third reason (and I think it is the big one)  is my own stubborn rebelliousness.   It's sometimes just easier for me to say nothing than to risk putting my ideas out there where others can criticize them.  But when I dam up my thoughts, my soul stagnates and my thoughts run dry.

I have to blog, for God's sake.  No one  has to read them of course (though I hope you do, and comment back).  Life is too short  not to say what we think.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in his classic book Life Together that who will not be in company avoid being alone those who will not be alone avoid company.  I think what he was saying is that we need to strike a healthy balance between speaking and silence.  Our souls need to be shared as much as our souls need to be quiet.  For those of us who find  that difficult, then we need to do it anyway.  Blogging gives me a way of doing it. It is as much of a spiritual discipline for me as prayer.