Something New
When I was growing up, I would rearrange the furniture in my room on a regular basis. My parents didn’t love it for obvious reasons, but I sure did.
I know some people hate change, but I like it.
Well, for the most part (#pandemics).
There’s something refreshing to me when things change. It makes old things feel new(er). Ironically, however, fear has often kept me from me trying new things. I’ve had a decent list of things I’ve wanted to do over the past 5-10 years that I’ve just never done. I’m not talking about things like ‘jump out of a plane’, but things like write a book, make music and….yes…start a website.
I’m not joking when I’m saying that it was on my ‘main takeaways’ list at least 3 times leaving conferences over the past 10 years. Partly because I’ve always been intrigued at the idea of starting a blog. Also because a passion of mine for a long time has been speaking to students & to the adults who are investing in them. A growing passion is coaching leaders to become better leaders of healthy ministries. I knew a website would give me more opportunities to do those things.
But, thanks to my old friend, FEAR…I just never did it.
what if I end up like one of those people who start a blog, but only write like 2 blogs and quit? (I will warn you in advance, this may happen.)
what if it came off as arrogant that I started my own website? After all, having a website where people can reach me about speaking or coaching sort of assumes that I think someone will WANT to reach me about speaking or coaching. For a neurotic guy with a mean streak of negative self talk, that’s not easy to overcome. (and now I’m a little worried that I hurt anyone’s feelings who created their own website years ago without hesitation. Forgive me. You’re not arrogant…I’m just an idiot.)
what if no one cares what I have to say in what I write? (most won’t and I think I’m okay with that. I think it might be more about having an outlet than trying to make too much of a difference.)
what would I write about? (spoiler alert, it will mainly be about ministry…but who knows?)
what if my blogs are too long & neurotic for people to follow? (I’m pretty sure we’ve reached that point already.)
But…here we are. My friend Jon Acuff often encourages people to punch fear in the face, so I guess that’s sort of what this is. And to be fair, I’ve met Jon like twice. He’s a nice dude, but I’m not so sure he’d categorize us as friends.
So, I’m throwing a punch & I’m starting something new.
But not in the comforting & refreshing ‘rearranging my room’ kind of way.
More in the fear & anxiety inducing ‘what if this is dead in 6 months, I write something that gets me fired & just flushed the money down the drain I used to pay for the domain/site’ kind of way.
Have I mentioned my neurosis yet? (I started this with a short 1-2 paragraph introduction in mind).
We’ll see where this goes. Thanks for reading.
