Fruitless Blogging

For me, blogging is an outlet for the extra expressions of life and ministry. Though I know for some authors it is their job to blog, not so for me. Just as a tree uses an abundance of nutrients drawn from the sun, soil, and moisture in its environment to produce its fruit, so blog post ideas and words come to me as I live, preach, read, teach, and minister in community. Usually I love rising on Monday mornings, looking forward to that dedicated time to meditate and express thoughts through writing while sipping coffee. Pushing the "Publish" button after completing a post is usually as satisfying to me as hitting a winning three-pointer in a pick-up game.

Yet not so much lately. Writing posts recently feel more like having a resistant tooth pulled than making a basket.

Why is this the case? Surely some of it has to do with a pressing schedule as of late that makes gathering thoughts into a communicated piece more difficult. But to be more honest while maintaining discretion, it is simply due to caring for - and carrying around - the burdens of others. For I go to write, but right now all that mostly comes out as I sit before this screen are sighs and prayers. And feeble efforts like this post.

The preacher in Ecclesiastes said that for everything there is a season, even "a time to keep silence, and a time to speak" (Eccl. 3:7). Though I usually like to think I'm being more fruitful speaking through writing, I'm starting to realize my silent, sighing prayers are the more necessary fruit currently. And, perhaps, the fruit that the master of the vineyard desires to see during this season.