So this is the new blog.
Back in 2004, I started writing on Blogger. Like most college kids, it initially performed as the repository for all the things about which I felt compelled to write (which was far too many). As I continued to write, though, I noticed that some of my work was being picked up and spread around. My website was getting some heavy traffic to a few very popular posts. I started to realize that my posts, thoughtfully crafted, could have a real, positive effect.
In more recent years I’ve become far more intentional in my writing. Still, there wasn’t a cohesive theme to the blog. The topics seemed to revolve more around current events in the news and my own life rather than matters with a greater lifespan. Any attempt to form a central theme was compounded by the baggage my long-running blog carried with it. It was time for a clean break.
I took some time away from writing to pare down a responsibility-laden schedule. I was trying to do too much. I wanted to be involved in every good thing that came along, but soon it was controlling me. It was time to slough off the demands of the volunteer positions. And after all, I’d much rather be great at a few things than lousy at (and attempting to engage in) everything. I wasn’t even reading anymore, and like time away from the gym, I could feel its effects in my whole life.
During my time off, I kept mulling over what this new blog would be called. Not only did I need to set up a new WordPress installation (with 3.0 arriving on the scene during my sabbatical), but I would need to choose a domain name to go with it. Plans of a blog network for liberty-minded writers were scrapped in favor of less heartburn, and with it went the domain name that I’d registered only months earlier. There was a lot of work to be done to get it to this point.
And now Pursuit of Redemption is the new blog’s name. It’s an allusion to not only to my own life—and the struggle I experience daily—but every Christian’s duty for this world. We are not merely to live idly in it. We are to strive daily for the redemption of this world through the salvific work of Christ on the cross. Yet it is not us, but Christ in us! (Can you even comprehend that?) How that should play out in our individual and corporate lives flips our milquetoast idea of Christianity on its head.
It doesn’t mean being good enough. It doesn’t mean connecting with your inner self. It doesn’t mean being part of the right, socially conscious political group, and it doesn’t mean properly demanding this country revert to “the good ole days.” It means intentionally living out the Gospel in every aspect of our daily lives: in our workplaces, our churches, our cities, our states, our political and activist groups, and our country. It means to love this world as Christ loved it—enough to die for it—and to seek its redemption. It’s a tall order.
I’m not sure what every post will bring. And while the name will imply a certain thread of redemption throughout, I can’t even promise a central thesis. Blogs must be somewhat disjointed by their very nature, and this blog is, in part, an exercise in my own understanding of the pursuit in which we are engaged. I can promise you this: each post will be written with the intent to be just as noteworthy in one year’s time. What I write here will not become mired in the day-to-day. It will not merely become a regurgitation of the news alongside my own commentary. I can’t imagine you have much need for that sort of bloviation.
Forgive me where I err, but do not hesitate to challenge me when it is required. Please contribute to the discussion. And join me in the battle to uphold truth in this world.
