On Writing

Hello friends,

And greetings from my favorite vacation spot in the entire world, Breezy Point NY. After a long summer of trips and events and ministry, it's nice to be able to step back, take a deep breath and recharge the batteries. 

One of the things that I do when I'm going through this recharging stage is to re-evaluate what it is that gives me energy, what it is that is lacking from my life when I'm too busy that brings me joy. When I'm on vacation, I make it a point to make sure that my bike comes along with me because during the sumer I often lose focus on cycling just for fun. I make it a point to bring my guitar along with me to spend some time songwriting. I spend some time in the scriptures, and real deep time at that, not just a surface read through. These are the things that can get neglected when life gets too busy, and it's important to hit the reset button before things get ramped up again in the fall. If I've done vacation right, by the time I get back I'm not only well rested, I'm back in the habit of resting. 

And so last night, I read an e-mail from Examiner.com that reminded me that I am in fact still considered a correspondent for them. I signed up for this news organization in 2009, to write articles about Christianity, if at all possible directly related to the Pittsburgh area. My last article for them was in 2009. It just simply slipped off my radar. So when I read that e-mail, I was reminded that one of the ways that I recharge best is when I'm writing and writing frequently. This usually leads to a sad, sorry attempt to write a not well thought out book. I can't tell you how many "Chapter one" documents exist on my computer that were born at this very beach house only to be forgotten in the return to the real world. So I don't think that a book is the right answer, at least not right now. 

I think the answer is to try to keep myself accountable to writing both here at the J-Blog and on Examiner. I sat down last night and came up with a schedule for myself, and hope to actually be able to keep up with it. You can expect to see posts here at J-Blog on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and new articles at Examiner on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Again, I don't have the world's best track record when it comes to keeping up with these schedules, but I'm going to do my best for you guys! As always, if you have any topics related to youth ministry, seminary, worship, or book reviews, please leave a comment here below. I have a few posts already swirling around the old noggin to get us kick started, but this blog is way more fun when its a conversation than when its just me ranting. 

See you Friday!

Godspeed,

Jason