Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Blogging and Transformation

It is really quite impressive all the time that is spent blogging.
Over 60 million total blogs.
Over 2 million posts containing the word "Bible"
700,000+ times the word "Christianity" appears.
All the discussions. all the comments. All the opinions.
What are the results? - We are well informed, better connected with more people, and having more conversations than ever before on important topics.

I just have one question:

Have we changed? Are we more like Jesus? Do we find our lives actually being transformed or just people who are better informed? Are we better people for having spent time doing this or do we just have opinions that are now better thought out than before with little relevance to our spiritual life? Does reading and debating various viewpoints on various blogs better us in our Christian walk? Do we do this for us and for our ego or do we do it for Him?

I would hate to think that all these thousands and millions of people would spend so much time on something that would only serve to get them thinking more about topics but fail to impact their actually day-to-day lives. Let's make our thoughts more about the importance of transformation and less about information that has no intent to transform.

I offer this challenge to all of you out there who enjoy this medium of information sharing known as blogging: Let us reflect on how this information, how the thoughts of others, and how scripture leads to transformation. Let us spend more time thinking, posting, and commenting on what actually helps us to be better people than on just finding out a bunch of neat biblical brain teasers. When we do that our blogging grows nearer to God's heart and his intention for our interactions with each other. Does that mean there is no room for small talk? Of course not. I would just like to see things progress beyond that more often than they do.

I do not say any of this to stifle conversation or comments. I do hope that it will encourage us to interact even more and on a deeper level than before as we talk about actually being spiritually transformed.

9 comments:

preacherman said...

Great post as always.

Anonymous said...

Matt,
Years ago (back in the 80s, I think) Reader's Digest had an article by the actual librarian of the Library of Congress (I have not been able to find this article) in which he talked about the sources of information (books vs. magazines vs. newspapers). His thesis was that books contain information that we can ponder and use to gain knowledge. Magazines and newspapers had information that was constantly changing and was generally unreliable for gaining knowledge. He believed that knowledge (even though it may not have all the information available) was vastly superior to having all the information in the world. He saw information as the building blocks and knowledge as the ability to take the building blocks and build them into a useful system. He warned about trying to build one's knowledge on constantly changing information. I would imagine had the Internet been in full swing at the time of his article he would have seen the Internet as even more unreliable than magazines and newspapers.

Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death" would be an interesting addition to this discussion. His thesis is that every source of information (oral communication, written or printed word, images, videos, etc.) colors our thinking in different ways. Each medium presents information in different ways and we often don't take the time to reflect on those different ways and how those ways might color our knowledge.

I agree that the goal of our posts and reading of posts should be the transformation of our lives and not the gathering of tidbits. I love the Internet and being able to read all my favorite authors, but their efforts are wasted (and my efforts as well) if I don't use their information properly.

Anonymous said...

Okay, seriously guys, are you talking about how silly my blog is? I feel defensive, which might be a sign that I need to change something.

Matt said...

Hi Lisa,

Certainly not pointing fingers here at all! Really! This post is really more introspection on myself than anything else and trying to get myself to think of things on a more significant level.
All thoughts are welcome. And I certainly enjoy going to each of your blogs for the different flavors they provide. Take care

Anonymous said...

Lisa,
Why would you assume that this blog was about you? Matt's comments are about all of us who blog and surf the net. I love your blog. It inspired me to get busy on my own blog. I love seeing your pictures and reading your insights into your life and your kids. Keep it up.

Anonymous said...

Ha! I'm obviously a little sensitive. It might be that I was joking about Matt finding Loni (my sister) a husband on my blog one day & then this is Matt's post the next! Or maybe it's that I'm reading all these ministers' blogs lately & comparing them with my "fluff" blog.

Anonymous said...

By the way, Dad, how IN THE WORLD do you remember so much about an article you read IN THE 80'S?!?!

Anonymous said...

I don't know how I remember stuff from the 80s. I remember things that really impact my thinking. If something really resonates with me, I remember it. Your blog is not fluff my dear daughter. Your insights into your life and your family are truly deep and thoughtful. I don't allow anyone to insult my family so don't insult my daughter again!

Anonymous said...

Ha ha.

I'm sure Matt is enjoying all this anyway. :)

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