“The LORD Said. I Think. Oops! That Was Me!” Yeah, that really happens. I do wish I could take credit for my title, but I can’t. It’s from a book by T. F. Tenney, titled The Lord Said– Or Was That Me: Some More Advice Unasked For And Seldom Heeded. I’ll hopefully write about it (the book) some day, but for now it’s just the title I’m borrowing.
It’s hard to admit even to ourselves when we do something because we thought it’s what God wanted, but then find out it wasn’t. Worse yet, it’s what we wanted.
It’s harder yet to write about it. But I kind of have to, since it has to do with changes to this site. And my other sites as well. I feel like I have to explain why I made some major changes, and am now totally undoing them.
So what happened was that I started with one site about 11 years ago. I’ve had to move a few times because of technical enhancements that became available and because it started to get too slow as it got bigger. And that’s all fine. It happens.
The LORD Said.
But a while back, I broke it up into two different sites. Then three. Why? Because some people weren’t too happy about some of what I wrote. I’ve got some topics for existing/long-term Christians. Some for new Christians. And some for non-Christians.
And these past five years or so, it’s pretty much impossible to ignore the strange connection between conservative Christians and politics. I view this merger creating political Christians as a problem.
There are also difficulties when writing for different people along the spectrum of non-Christian to new Christian to more mature Christian. And there’s always the anti-Christian. How do I do that?
The LORD Said. I Think.
Obviously, the answer to the conundrum is prayer. See what God has to say and then do that. Sure – it’s easy to say. And to write. But it’s much harder to do. It’s hard to keep your own preconceived answers out of it.
And it takes patience, because sometimes God doesn’t answer as quickly as we’d like. Or as loudly as we’d like. If we could get an email or a text message, it would be wonderful. But how often has that happened? I don’t know about you, but for me – it never has.
Since I didn’t feel like there wasn’t a reason to go ahead with splitting up the site by, for lack of a better term, the target audience, I proceeded to do just that. However, it had exactly the opposite effect of what I expected and wanted. Readership went down. Way down. This prompted, as it should, a renewed round of prayer as to what I was supposed to be doing. That included whether or not I should even continue writing.
The LORD Said. I Think. Oops!
Still without any sense of how to proceed, I started to at least look at what it would take to put it all back together again. It’s not trivial. However, during that process, I was reminded of something. Something important.
The Beatitudes – Matthew
5:3-12 pp — Lk 6:20-23
Mt 5:1 Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them, saying:
Mt 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Mt 5:4 Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Mt 5:5 Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
Mt 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Mt 5:7 Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Mt 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Mt 5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.
Mt 5:10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Mt 5:11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them, saying:
Yes, Jesus saw the crowds, and went up on the side of the mountain. His disciples followed. This gives the appearance of Jesus and the disciples separating themselves from the crowd. It seems that what Jesus had to say was only for certain people. A differentiation in who hears what.
However, things didn’t stay that way. By the time we get to the end of Jesus’ speaking on the mountainside, we read:
The Wise and Foolish Builders – Matthew
7:24-27 pp — Lk 6:47-49
Mt 7:24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
Mt 7:28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.
So, while we aren’t told exactly when people other than the disciples were close enough to hear what Jesus was saying, we do know that’s exactly what happened. In fact, by the end, there were crowds of people. And they obviously heard, because they were amazed at what Jesus taught. And how He taught.
So much for that differentiation of who hears/reads what!
Conclusion – The LORD Said. I Think. Oops! That Was Me!
The only conclusion I can reach is that thinking I should split up the site wasn’t from God. Rather, it was from me. And so, it’s going to come back together again.
I feel like I should’ve known better. There are times when I know better than to write. Times when I feel like it’s more me than the Holy Spirit. So I don’t write. In hindsight, I feel like I shouldn’t have proceeded with changing the site when I did. Waiting would have been better. Ultimately, more productive as well, since I spent a lot of time on the split and now have to spend almost as much time undoing what I did.
So the lesson here should be obvious. Sometimes God says yes. Sometimes no. Oftentimes nothing at all. The task for us, at least let’s say for me, is to know when nothing means nothing, as in whatever you want is fine with Me – and when nothing means wait.
I really hope I don’t have to learn that too many more times. For now – time to undo some stuff.
Image by S K from Pixabay