Reflective Blogging

This post is an adaptation of an article written by Dr. Robert Clinton entitled "Uses And Values of Reflective Journaling".   It is not on-line or I would link to it.  Since blogging is a form of journaling, I substituted the word "blogging" for "journaling".    For you Unix folks, just imagine  : 1,$s/journaling/blogging/g    I used the article with his permission.

Clinton's article applies to journaling in a written journal such as a diary.  Blogging has had a much shorter half life than journaling ... however, if blogging hangs around for a long time (and I hope it will), then bloggers will realize similar benefits from their blogging.

"Reflective blogging" is a new term.  I use it to mean posting on a blog with reflective (i.e contemplative ) posts.  In other words, posts which reveal how and what a blogger is thinking about God, life, truth etc.  These posts are often spawned by interacting with God's thoughts through reading His word.  There are some reflective type faith bloggers out there, but most of the rock stars of the faith blogosphere spend their time linking, trackbacking and reacting to each other's posts about the controvery du jour.  This criticism, btw, is self-directed too.

The b'sphere could use more reflective blogging, in my opinion – especially by godly men and women who have walked in union life with Christ for some time.  We could all benefit from their insight into life.

Here are Clinton's "Five Uses Of Reflective Blogging"

1. Benchmarking : Reflective blogging helps one identify important benchmarks along the way.  These benchmarks can be important in referencing growth or decline.
2. Remembering : Reflective blogging helps us remember important things.  Normally over long periods of time we will tend to forget many things, including encounters with God, etc.  But if we blog these kinds of things in some note taking methodology so that they can be reviewed, we will remember them. [ note taking ideas such as : indexing, tagging etc ] This in turn allows us to praise God anew and afresh for things He has previously done.
3. Clarification : Reflective blogging our ideas, observations, implications etc. will force us to clarify what we are learning in an explicit way.  When we put things down in writing we are forced to identify more specifically our thoughts.
4. Renewal / Challenges : Reflective blogging often acts as a means of bringing about renewal and giving challenges.  For most of us there is a tendency to forget over the long haul.  Sometimes many of us become cynical or disbelieving or even apathetic in our Christian walk as we grow older.  By reviewing our past history on our blogs, we can be refreshed or renewed by what God has done in the past.  Sometimes God will use those past encounters to challenge us afresh to have faith like we did in our earlier days as Christians.
5. Modeling : Many of us know the value of modeling for younger emerging* leaders.  Blog posts of various kinds can be used with others to stimulate their growth.

Reflect on!

* used in the traditional sense of emerging ... as in "up and coming" ... not to be confused with the emerging / emergent church movement

Comments

[J A Greer]

I think the world could use a few less blogs devoted to the latest political/cultural/religious crisis.

Journaling about life, and making it interesting is hard, which is why I don't think folks really do it. James Lileks' Bleat, is about the best daily blog or journal that attempts this.

Life is anthropological, even the Christian life. A Christian life lived just with concepts and thoughts isn't really very interesting.

[Ann Kroeker]

Your description of reflective blogging is exactly what I attempt to do, though how effectively I do it remains to be seen, read and commented upon. Your broad definition, "posts which reveal how and what a blogger is thinking about God, life, truth etc...often spawned by interacting with God's thoughts through reading His word," captures my overall blog mission exactly. You've inspired me to write more directly from interacting with God's Word, showing, as JA Greer commented, the anthropological aspect of one mom living out her life in Christ. Thanks for the inspiration and in a way, affirmation.