Godward Toil

Blogs Explained "In Plain English"

Several people in my family and church have asked me the whys, hows, whats about blogs and blogging.  There are some good resources about how blogs can serve the Christian community, including an entire book dedicated to the subject for church leaders/planters.  This engaging little video gives the 5 minute explanation of what blogs are and why they are important in our culture.  Since some of the audience I would like to talk with via this blog is new to the whole idea, I thought it would be worth sharing.   
[via Missionary Geek]

New Domain Name (and apology for republished posts)

Godward Toil can now be found at www.biblicalproductivity.org (thanks to Michael Sampson whose suggestion about this prompted me to finish mapping the new name I had previously registered).

In order for this change to take effect, I had to republish the pages of the blog, causing some readers to get old posts sent to your RSS reader.   My apologies for that!   

Weeping with Pipers

This heart-wrenching post by John Piper about the death of his baby granddaughter is why I'm so thankful for blogging and the Internet.  I want to weep with those who weep, both here and around the world.   I'm thankful for God's purpose in suffering, and I need reminders about it from every way I can get them.   The WWW has so many opportunities for sin (from time-wasting to infidelity); we can rejoice when God's people use it fill our minds with Jesus and to garner prayer for His Church.

Joshua Harris on time spent on Facebook

A post by Justin Taylor pointed me to this post by Josh Harris about why he canceled his Facebook account after one week.  There is a lot of good, renewed mind thinking in this post.   Decisions about how to spend the precious minutes God gives are essentially a stewardship decisions.  And I love how Josh goes even beyond this stewardship point to also note how Facebook pointed him toward himself more than he felt was right.  The post is worth a read, especially if you need some conviction about how you spend your time online.

Re-thought, Re-named, and Re-launched

This blog has had some false starts.  I finally figured out why:  I was being perfectionist and prideful about the kind of content I would share on it.  I had the idea that I was going to post well-worked-out ideas about how to think about, embrace, and be fruitful in the work God has for us in life.  But I sat there not knowing what to post first, feeling frustrated and overwhelmed when I thought about this project.

Whenever I feel that way, it means I need to pray and think...to discern what God really calling me to,  and what is holding me back.   What I discovered is that a need a platform for working out those ideas, not a pulpit from which to preach them.  I need a blog more like what Merlin Mann of 43Folders described in a recent post:

"Remember that your blog is only incidentally a publishing system or a public website. At its heart, your blog represents the evolving expression of your most passionately held ideas. It’s a conversation you’re holding up with the world and with yourself — a place where you can watch your own thoughts take different shapes and occasionally surprise you with where they end up…”   

So, I have deleted some of my previous posts, and changed the blog subtitle from "Peace, purpose, and productivity" (which seemed to imply that I already arrived--the blogger's version of an overrealized eschatology) to "Pursuing productivity from God, for God, and with God" (which, I hope, implies that the blog is part of a pursuit in progress.)  I plan to use the blog as a way to pursue a passion God has given me to be more faithful in everyday tasks, more peaceful in adversity, and more trustworthy in my relationships and commitments.  May God bless this pursuit, this blog, and this weak Christian.