Over the last couple of months I’ve made a number of promises that I would write some things that have been on my heart of late … and I haven’t. It’s been an interesting dynamic to try and assess internally; the idea that I have things to say, but that it feels as though the Lord would just prefer I was quiet for a little while.
So you know what? I’ve decided to give myself permission to respond to the promptings of the Spirit and to not yield to the odd demands that blogging creates within a person .. demands I never expected to experience. Here’s what I mean:
When I started the Wind Farm as a virtual gateway to what I still hope will evolve into a local intentional community of believers gathered around neomonastic values and principles, I never expected that I would begin to feel a "virtual pressure" to have to blog regularly, otherwise people might get disgruntled and decide to go read someone else’s blog!
It sounds crazy, but it’s true. This is genuinely something I’ve begun to realise has crept up on me over the last year or so .. and frankly, I don’t like it. Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not for one moment suggesting that you or anyone else reading the Wind Farm has ever actually applied any pressure to me to keep writing new stuff or they’ll go look elsewhere. But someway, somehow, that weird pressure genuinely begins to show itself as you establish an online presence that draws people as readers.
Frankly, for all the supposed good of our ever-expanding and developing 21st century communications technologies, I genuinely believe we are far too connected. We are so connected, that it’s become the norm that when someone emails us, they expect an instant and detailed response, and then get offended when that response takes a few days, or God forbid, even a week! Or they get frustrated when they can’t reach you on their first attempt at a call to your mobile phone.
Let me give you a personal picture of what I mean …