It has been a while since I have posted on my blog. In fact, it has been over a month. There are a lot of reasons to my inactivity. Things such as, writing essays for doctoral programs, to being unsure what I want to write about, to being too critical of my own writing abilities, and simply not liking my own blog-name and theme. I have also tried to be uncontroversial because I know too many people discredit themselves based on what they put on social media. Just the same, I have tried not to be negative. There is enough negativity on blogs, especially Christian-based Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) blogs. All of this means my writing goals have been experiencing an identity crisis. However, I recently have decided on a direction I am going to try to point my blog towards, which is simply sharing biblically based life illustrations.
A Solution
The idea for biblically based life illustrations indirectly comes from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (NOBTS) President Dr. Chuck Kelley. For years, Dr. Kelley kept a journal of illustrations he chronicles throughout the day. One of my preaching professors, Dr. Ron Pate reported that Dr. Kelley would record at least five (5) illustrations a day. To me, this sounds like a great practice and one I want to mimic. Personally though, I have failed miserably in this discipline. I may be too much of a product of my own generation, meaning I like to type more than I do write by hand. So I figured why not turn this failure and love for typing into the basis of this blog, hence the name “Vertically Illustrated.” The new name aspires to illustrate the Lord’s hand in the daily observations of my life or the life of others while pointing back to a biblical passage as the source of inspiration. Also, my prayer is that it will allow me to not just illustrate God’s providence in my life, but also point towards Christ in a very compassionate and common means.
A Benefit
In addition to helping me create illustrations that minister and biblically inspire others; I hope this approach will take the pressure off of my writing expectations. Before under the old name, “Vertical Resilience” I felt too constricted. I believed I had to write towards a certain niche of perseverance every time. This became too difficult because if I am writing about adversity in every post I might want to see counselor because I have problems, this sentence was a joke in case you do not know my dry humor. Therefore, by being Vertically Illustrated I now have the freedom to simply write. I can write about anything I have the passion to write about, it is like being literarily set free. I can use my variety of areas to illustrate and inspire others from a host of interests I maintain. Some of these areas include apologetics, sports, leadership, resilience, the SBC, and other concentrations. Basically, I want to use these things to biblically reflect the person whom the Lord Jesus Christ has created me to be and who He is molding me to be further.
Conclusion
This is where I intend to go from here because the old blog focus made writing more a chore than a joy. I see it as a new lease on blogging and really a new lease on my own spiritual formation. My prayer is by trying to minister and inspire others I will enhance my own walk with Christ. By not just seeing the inspiration in the daily activities of life, but by establishing them with a biblical basis I will be able to point myself and most of all others towards the love Jesus even more. To me, that sounds like fun and is worth writing about!
Blessings,
Mike