It’s good to be home! In my last blog, three weeks ago, I tried my best to wrap up—or express the difficulty of wrapping up—the World Race experience and God’s central role in it. Since that time, it’s been great to catch up with my family and have (slowly) all the conversations that, because of their inherent depth, I had left to sit un-discussed during the last few months of the race until they could be had face to face. I will leave the sometimes comfortingly simple, sometimes painfully awkward dynamics of returning home after eleven months abroad, and more importantly, returning home as a (hopefully) more sanctified sinner, thrust into the middle of a balancing act—deciding which parts of my life can stay and which must go—to write about later, in greater detail.
This, naturally, brings me to my next thought—writing. My thoughts bounced back and forth for a while as to whether or not I should keep blogging. My biggest line of reasoning against continued blogging was a product of my changing context.
On the World Race blog I could write, not only about myself, but largely about people that will never have access to a computer. As odd—and maybe even wrong, in hindsight, it is to admit—it is much easier to write about my hope that Sridhar and Deepa come to Christ knowing they will likely never read about it. It’s not even that my motives are veiled—I would hope I’ve done enough through word and deed to align myself with the Biblical call to desire that all may come to know Jesus Christ. It’s not a secret—if you are reading this, I want you to follow Jesus! Nevertheless, my natural human timidity finds it easier to be “unashamed” (Romans 1:16) of the Gospel around those whom I will likely never see again and who will never read an account of my missional strivings, plain as they may have been at the time of our face-to-face interaction.
In this context, however—my own hometown and soon, a University Campus—I do not feel comfortable writing about people who undoubtedly have Internet access, lest they find their name on a blog of mine and feel as if they’ve been “used” unknowingly. And, of course, an occurrence of this nature would be, in my opinion, Un-Christian. How does this relate to people I wrote about in World Race blogs? I don’t know—I am still thinking through it.
Nonetheless, I feel that there are pros to continuing writing. For one, I love it and it makes me happy. Secondly, the accountability it brings is immense: it helps me to constantly think in “teacher” mode—“how do I break down complex truths and explain them to people who don’t have the bias of being inside of my own brain?” Third, I have seen God bless blogging as a ministry in the past, and I have no compelling reason to believe he won’t do the same in the future. Lastly, I feel that, one step at a time, the challenges of blogging in America can be tackled, through prayer, and on a case by case basis, to ensure that tact, honor, and love are all present. And, besides, I am not ashamed to divulge many of the inner workings of my own laughably messy brain.
So, a new blog it is! I would like to continue blogging on this site (since it is easy, and possible), but admittedly, the World Race is over. God is not through, but the World Race is. My new blog site is www.thejoshualife.wordpress.com.
Logistically, if you are currently subscribed to this World Race blog, and either want to transfer subscriptions or drop a subscription, let me know either way. My first real blog will probably not be posted here, but will only be posted on the new blog. Thank you for all of your faithful support and I look forward to growing alongside of you in this coming season!
