This month marks my two-year blogiversary.
When my wife and I first moved to Louisville, we sent a monthly email newsletter to update our friends and family on life in Louisville. Only after a couple of months, my email service failed and lost all the addresses. Goofing off in the library (something I frequently do), I found a friend on his laptop doing this thing called “blogging,” and I asked him how it all worked. I had heard of bloggers after the whole Dan Rather expose, and I thought it could be used to communicate with those I lost contact with due to the cessation of our monthly email. Moreover, I thought I could share some things God was teaching me for information, discussion, encouragement, etc.
Since that time, my experience in blogging has grown me in a number of ways. According to my dashboard, this post is number 1055. Doing a little math shows that I have averaged over 10 posts a week for 104 straight weeks. I don’t know all the things I have done 1055 times, but blogging sure wasn’t on the list two years ago! Looking back, there are several posts I kept from deleting to remind me of where I have been, of how God has changed me, and how to learn from the mistakes of my past. Many times I was simply a jerk. Other times I was ignorant and uniformed. And yet, in spite of all my failures, God has allowed me to meet some great people in the process.
Some of my closest friends and brothers in Christ have come through blogging. Not only that, I had the opportunity of hosting the Band of Bloggers last year, which turned out to be the largest Christian blogger gatherings to date. About that time, another blogger (who I met through blogging) and I decided to respond to some of the rubbish on a website called BaptistFire. On May 1, we launched Strange BaptistFire to respond to everything on BaptistFire’s website. Eleven days later they disappeared never to be seen again.
There is no way to recount all the blessings I have received from blogging. Of course, I have had my share of critics and enemies. But I have no regrets of the time and energy spent in my feeble attempts to communicate my heart and thoughts on things I believe matter with the hope that it could encourage you or stimulate discussion. To all of you who have found something worthwile on my blog and continue to read, thank you.
As I have contemplated where I am in my experience in blogging and to a greater degree my spiritual life at large, I have decided to undergo a break in blogging. I am not going to set an arbitrary time for the break. There are several things I am hoping to accomplish during the break, including spending more time with my wife, focusing more intently on reaching my unbelieving coworkers with the gospel, the completion of three papers, additional research on religious pluralism, completion of categorizing all posts, and going on a few photography excursions. I will resume posting when I feel that the break has accomplished its purpose.
During my break from posting, I am going to do a couple of things. First, I am going to post over at The Protos Fellowship. Over there you could find stuff on the gospel, on what we are studying, conversations, and our efforts to evangelize third shifters. Second, I hope to post pictures on my Flickr page, pending that I actually get out and shoot! Finally, if anyone cares to discuss anything on your mind, the comments of this post are open to talk about anything on your mind. If you have anything you care to ask, however random it be, or share a thought, feel free to comment.
Again, thank you for reading P&P. The encouragement I have received, the friendship that have been made, the lessons I have learned, and the criticisms that I have welcomed have all helped conform me to be more like Jesus. And it is to him I flee and find strength and satisfaction. May he abundantly bless you with joy in his presence.
Coram deo,
Timmy Brister
Enjoy your break, brother. It is well deserved. Perhaps at some point in the future we could organize a blogosphere-wide “sabbatical” where we vacation from blogging, and perhaps those of us near to each other could get together on a regular basis for prayer, encouragement, and such. We ought to be doing such things (taking a “blog sabbatical”) regularly, perhaps once a quarter. We could call it “the Lord’s Sabbatical” or something like that, complete with Communion. 😉
Watch out for the idol factory. Blog breaks can bring on different ‘masters.’
Thanks for the input guys!
Tony, I really appreciate your word man. May God help me use this time with extraordinary passion and discipline to focus on the things He has called me to do.
You’re responsible for “Strange BaptistFire”? I love that blog! Enjoy your time away. I’ll miss your thoughts.
Blessings.
Les
Les,
Thanks man.
Regarding SBF, what happened was Nathan and I found ourselves responding separately to BaptistFire’s garbage for about a year. When their rhetoric got worse, we decided we needed to come up with a collective effort and put a team together. That included Gene Bridges, Nathan, Evan May, Dustin Segers, and me. So I can’t take full credit for the blog. Over the past year, Evan left and we picked up Andrew and Jim (who by the way have done most of the blogging lately). I hope to get back posting regularly over there. I imagine the anti-Calvinism diatribes will once again pick up leading into the Convention- and SBF will be there to expose burn the straw men and humbly present the truth.
Have a wonderful Lord’s Day.
Timmy
Tim~
Congrats on the 2 year Blogiversary. I will be celebrating my two year in 3 days. I do not know about you, but I believe God has used my blogging as a great blessing in for good and ill. He has taught me lessons of virtue and vice. And if He graces me I hope to keep doing it. I pray God grants you the same. Your blog is always a pleasure and benefit for me to read.
Justin
Thanks Justin, and a happy blogiversary to you as well.
I agree with you that God has used this medium for both good and ill. Whatever good comes of P&P, it is because of God’s goodness to me. I am grateful for the interaction and encouragement I have received from folks like you, and I hope in the future God will allow me to continue the discussion and share information on things that matter to all of us.
Blessings,
Timmy
Timmy,
I’ve come across your blog recently and have enjoyed your insightful commentaries and especially your blogging about the Baptist ID conference.
I hope this season of bloglessness will only strengthen you as a person and that you will return to the blogosphere better than ever.
Trevin,
Thanks alot man. I need the rest.
Since you have been on Ssaid @ Southern, I have been following Kingdom People as well. As a former student minister, I appreciate your series on youth worship that you posted recently. 🙂 Good stuff.
Timmy,
May the Lord bless you during your break! Blogging can and has been so good to you and me, but it can be taxing as well. I look forward to you coming back refreshed!
Press on, brother,
Nathan
Timmy,
Enjoy your break. I need one too though I do take small breaks due to trying to finish up on my CFP classes. Blogging can take up so much time.
You reminded me to look at when I started my blog and it was June 8, 2004. Man, I can’t believe it’s been that long. Anyways, take care of yourself.
Mark
Nathan,
You’re correct bro. It’s been fun to see how the Lord has used this thing to develop our friendship. I have been refreshed already by the encouragement I have received from the people God has blessed me to know.
Mark,
June 8, 2004? You are a true veteran. 😉
Cool! Happy Blogiversary!!
For what it’s worth, I thought I’d let you know that I’m posting some pictures of John Piper who spoke in chapel today (and will speak this Thursday as well). Hopefully Flickr will cooperate with my high res images!
Also the audio is already up. Download it by clicking here.
My photos can be accessed here.
For discussion, check out Said At Southern
Timmy,
I meant to tell you that I figured out a simple how to add html stuff to your sidebar. On your admin page just add a new “text” widget. Then in the text field paste the html you want. You don’t need to put anything in the title field. This should work for the statistics code you were talking about. Call me if you need more help or I could show you how on my laptop next week at school.