The essence of testimony (or "Why I blog")

I process by writing, and I learn and grow by processing.

Funny though… I’m not, and never have been, a journaler, in the traditional sense. The biggest reason I don’t journal is that I can’t stand the thought of a written record of how stupid I once was! So now, instead of writing those things on paper, I publish them on the web (wait, what?????)

I hardly understand it myself, but like I said, I write to process. Something about the possibility of an audience (however small it may be) gives me sufficient compulsion to write. If I was the only one who’d ever read this stuff, I undoubtedly wouldn’t go through the process of working it all out.

I’ve got a document on my laptop that is filled with thought fragments that I need to process and develop. If I were writing to myself (i.e. journaling,) I’d probably never bother to get around to them, because there wouldn’t be much point, in my mind. But the outlet of a blog somehow lends purpose to the process of developing these thoughts. I frame my thoughts for the consumption of an audience rather than just for myself. I labor over vocabulary, grammar and formatting. I seek out word illustrations to make the things floating around in my mind more easily understood by the world… and in the process, they become more understandable to me.

I don’t think this is a method that should be prescribed for everyone, but it works for me. I blog for my own development, really. But it is always my hope that God touches someone else through what He’s teaching me. To me, that’s the essence of testimony.