A Post for My Good Buddy Dan Phillips

Some of you, maybe most of you know Dan Phillips of TeamPyro fame.  When Dan notices that I have been silent on the internet for awhile he gets worried about me.  He sent me a comment the other day on a post letting me know that he's worried about me since it has been awhile since I posted. 

So this one is to say thanks to Dan and to anyone else out there who worries about me.  I am in a good season right now.  I am under chemo so I am still pretty much down and out for 4-7 days during any two week cycle.  But this time, though the main downtime is still caused by fatigue, it doesn't seem quite as painful as it did with the last go around.  Also, I know that God is using the prayers of my church and my friends out there in cyber land to bring physical sustenance to me and I live every day with the sense that I am living "under the mercy" as someone has said. 

When I am alert and up and running I am trying to give my attention to matters at home and church.  That's the main reason I haven't been blogging.  I still do read a fair number of blogs but don't feel the compulsion to post that I used to, as I often sense there are too many voices out there anyway, I don't need to add my own to the cacophony.  Still, every now and then I get an urge to write something so maybe I'll follow through on some of those urges soon. 

I did just finish reading James Davison Hunter's book To Change the World and he offers some helpful words on the nature of incarnational ministry and culture shaping.  There is nothing earth shattering about what I am about to write, but it makes sense - in the incarnation Jesus was fully present to the people amongst whom He lived.  Incarnational ministry will have a distinctly local flavor. This is one of my great regrets over the past years of blogging - that I let a desire to make a name for myself in cyberspace lead me to seek a presence there to the neglect of my presence locally, to my family and church.  I again offer my apologies to family and church for this. I'm not a total Luddite on this and I do see the value of writing on a blog, but I do think Hunter is write and offers some good words to those of us who love blogs.  We only have so many hours in a week, if Jesus' incarnation is any model for our interaction with the world then our interaction with the world will have a distinct local flavor where we are fully present and we will want to use the hours we have to the greatest effect locally.  So that explains a bit of where I have been - when I have some energy these days I try to spend that energy locally. 

And in addition to that, my reading mojo is really in gear these days.  I have always read a good deal but am reading and profiting more than ever from reading and I just find that I get greater joy out of reading and learning from the insights of others than I do from sharing my own thoughts. 

Still, I would be remiss and terribly ungrateful if I did not acknowledge the real friendships I have made in cyberspace and I do want to again thank all of you who pray for me.  Your prayers on my behalf are a true ministry of mercy and like I said, as time allows I do hope to spend some time back on the blog. 

And again, thanks to Dan - I'm doing good and thanks for worrying about me. 

Comments

[Lesley Bateman]

Good to "hear" your voice. We had a delightful weekend in jacksonville w/ Michelle Wiggins Watt who invited Terre and Scott Ulm over to dinner so we could all visit. Thought of you! Blessings to you my friend on this journey.

[Bryan K. Gregaer]

I totally respect your situation and do add you in my prayers, but know that even with the large amount of blogs available some of us...well at least me read only a few, or maybe even only 1, and yours is valuable to us.
This is intended ONLY as encouragement, as I have no true idea of what you are going through, but I appreciate your insights, and views, and consider them a compliment to my Pastors teachings and other sources of God love that I receive.
I do lift you and your house up to be blessed by the Lord, and claim that By his wounds you are healed in the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
My name is Bryan Greager, thanks for reading this.

[Rachael Starke]

Dan's readers care about you too. :)

You raise some great points. (And I'm digging back into Hunter's book too after being a little daunted by the length and font size!) I think the challenge of "incarnational" living is actually even greater for Christians who love blogging. We don't treat our readers or other bloggers simply as numbers on our hit counts - they're brothers and sisters in Christ (or, even better, potential brothers and sisters!). When the opportunity comes up to pray for them, or even meet a physical need, we want to jump at it. And while that's well and good, and even a testimony of how we are not like the world, we still only have 24 hours in a day. It's tough!

God bless and restore you to full health for His glory!

[Dan Phillips]

Pretty lame, brother, using "family" and "ministry" as an excuse not to blog!

(c:

Thanks for the shoutback; it was getting so bad that I was going to spam call your church again.

God bless you and yours.

[David Wayne]

Hey, let's set up a spam call sometime - I would love to talk to you. The question is, will your voice sound like I imagine it will . . . ?

[Lisa Hoffman]

Hello, Happy Memorial Day weekend to you and your family - glad to hear you are feeling better - Blessings, Lisa Hoffman, Orange Park, Florida

[Dan Phillips]

Well, you know how James Earl Jones sounds?

Not like that.

(c: