On Returning After a Blog Break

I was a little scared. Really, I was. After blogging consistently for 3 ½ years, stepping away from my blogs for the entire summer sounded, um… nice.  But risky. I mean, what would become of me? What would become of my blogs? What would become of my loyal readers and subscribers?

Would I miss blogging? Or would I discover that hours spent at the computer are better spent interacting with real, living people?

This last year, I floundered a bit, blog-wise. Because I felt like God wanted to direct my focus elsewhere, I allowed the blogs (my fitness blog included) to coast. As a result, I wrote a lot of ho-hum, mediocre posts. I didn’t spend much time responding to comments. I hardly read other blogs. I didn’t do much of anything, except keep my blogs afloat. I’m not really sure that is what God had in mind for me. But that’s what happened.

Just to clarify, living in mediocrity is not a life-goal of mine. (That Sandy, she’s just so mediocre. I love her writing…it’s so…ordinary and *yawn* boring.)

Au contraire! I aspire to live a life of excellence in everything I do…and adding fancy French declarations to my sentences really exemplifies excellence, non?

Thus, I declared for myself a summer blog break. You know, to sort it all out. I needed some serious direction and affirmation from God concerning this bloggy business. Anything that uses up so many precious hours and so much precious brain space truly should remain under a Holy prayer-covering, don’t you think?

Here’s what happened during said blog break:

First, I immediately filled my time with teaching. As in, standing in front of real, living people at my church, for four Wednesdays straight. I saw them. Touched them. Heard them. With all the hours I spent preparing at my computer, digging through my blog archives and writing pages and pages of material, it didn’t feel much like a break at all.

What blog break?  I’m on a blog break?

Once my teaching was over, we left for vacation. No teaching, no blogging. No fancy French declarations. Finally, a real break. Suddenly, I discovered oodles of oddly unfamiliar free time in my brain. Without attempting to craft every thought, experience and scripture into a viable blog post, I had open space to think clearly. As I walked along the ocean shore in the early morning hours each day, I asked God questions…many, many questions:

What am I doing on these blogs in the first place? What is my goal, my purpose?
Are my primary, real-life relationships suffering or thriving because of my blogs?
Is blogging a good use of my gifts and talents?
Am I making an eternal impact?
Am I still in the center of God’s will for me?

And with all the open space in my brain, I could actually hear God when He answered me.  He patiently answered each and every question.  I’m so very thankful He answered each and every question.

Without disclosing all the intimate details, I can tell you confidently that writing on God Speaks Today is exactly where God wants me. At least for now. This may not be where God wants me forever, but I’m certain that writing on God Speaks Today is my thang.

With all the open brain space, I have new ideas. New motivation. New excitement. New writing goals.

Honestly, the last few weeks, I’ve felt a bit like a caged animal!  I have had to use real self-restraint to continue the blog break until my children started school.  I could not WAIT to get back to writing and interacting with my readers.

Though I absolutely plan to keep my marriage and children my primary focus, I feel the release from God to take things up a notch on this blog. Not in terms of the amount of time I spend here blogging. But in terms of focus and purpose.

I’ll be making some changes over the next few months. Some of them you may not notice at all. Like when or how often I choose to blog, or the fact that I now have an editorial calendar and several posts ready to go in my que (again, with the fancy!).

Other things I hope you do notice. Like an easier-to-navigate and less-cluttered sidebar and navbar, to help you find what you need more quickly (if you subscribe via e-mail or RSS, you’d need to go to the actual blog to witness the transformation). Like better quality posts, because your time is precious and I love that you choose to spend some of it here.

All that to say, thanks for hanging with me during the summer hiatus, and for coming back for another season. Even though I can’t see, hear or touch you, please know I do pray for you. Often. You are just as “real and living” as the people who move about my home or attend my live-teaching events. God has made that very, very clear to me. With millions of blogs from which to choose, I’m honored and humbled that you stopped here.

Q4U:
Have you ever walked away from something, only to discover you can’t live without it?

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