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The Third Generation of British Christian Blogging and Sustainability

By Anita Mathias

blogging
Image : Paul Wilkinson


Archdruid Eileen writes, “The Third Generation of British Christian blogging might go in two directions – the “professional” blogs, such as Andrew Brown or His Grace, and the more personal ones with a certain amount of theological reflection – such as Sally’s (which has been around a long, long time) or Catriona’s (likewise) or Anita’s. I realise I’ve just listed three women and maybe that makes them less aggressive, less determined to blog relentlessly, and therefore less likely to tire of it.”

Hmm. Interesting. I disagree—theoretically!!– with the assumption that being a woman might make you less aggressive, and less determined to blog relentlessly.  Practically, however, the average woman does have less physical energy than the average man (certainly the case if I take myself and my husband as a representative sample).

 Also, even in households in which childcare and domestic chores are shared at least equally (as is the case in my household), the weight and distraction of them falls unequally on the woman. If the house is messy, the kids go to school without permission slips, in grubby kit, which could have profited from introductions to the washing machine or a needle, no one is going to say, “Bad house-husband,” “Bad dad.” So the weight of domesticity does fall unequally on women—until you reach the stage at which you don’t care what people think. (Am getting there, but not quite there yet.). The quotidian grind of hassle can militate against blogging relentlessly.

And of course, if that prevents burn-out, it is not necessarily a bad thing.
I started blogging in mid-April 2011, and have been surprised at the short life-cycle of many bloggers. How long will mine be? Will I last the course? I would like to.
How does a Christian blogger stay the course?
1)     Make sure it is your calling and vocation.
Of course, it is not necessary for everything one does to be a calling and vocation. I travel a good deal, and garden a good deal. Neither of these are my vocation. (Now I wish I would convince Roy that I had a vocation to travel!!) So, of course, one can blog and enjoy it without it being a calling and vocation.
However, if one does feel it is one’s calling, then continuing becomes non-negotiable.
I do feel blogging is part of my calling to write.
But only a part of it.
2)     If one feels that blogging is part of one’s calling as a writer, how does one sustain it?
Limits and boundaries.  I have over the last 14 months worked out a sustainable schedule. I blog 4-6 days a week, setting the timer on for 30 minutes. If I have a decent post in that time, great. If not, I take another 30 minutes. If it’s still not ready within an hour, I don’t publish that day, but take more time the next day to wrap it up.  So, I never spend more than an hour a day on my posts, and often less.
I spend a dedicated 15 minutes a day reading and commenting on other blogs. (Of course, if posts catch my eye in my Facebook newsfeed, or in my blog roll, I read them, so it’s often more than that.) I keep a balance between reading the posts of my commentators and people on my blogroll (to which I have even-handedly added everyone who’s  added me, and a handful of others besides),  as well as reading edgy Christian blogs which challenge my thinking (Lesley Fellows, Rachel Held Evans, Jamie, the Worst Missionary, The Church of No People, Anne Jackson etc). All these bloggers are younger than I am, and just as I am belatedly trying to get my body more flexible with yoga and body balance classes, I am trying to keep my thinking nimble and agile and not settle into a predictable, atrophied rut of middle-aged thinking. Heaven forbid.
Having a limit for how long you will spend on your blog will help ensure you will continue for the long haul.
3)     Why are you blogging?
A very personal question which it is imperative to answer.
What are the benefits to you of this expenditure of time?
To list some personal benefits to me,
Psychological. It keeps me in touch with the subterranean river of thoughts, emotion and inspiration. The often inchoate is explored and expressed. Hey, it’s cheaper than therapy.
Social and friendships—I have made new friends through my blog, whom I’ve later met in the flesh and liked, and have deepened existing relationships.  Real people write blogs (as I can attest!) and cyber-friendships add interest to my life.
Writing—My books have sold better since I started blogging, and it gave me the confidence to rapidly write and almost finish my third.  
Intellectual—It’s exercise for the mind. Reading other blogs keeps me in touch with the zeitgeist and forces me to formulate my thoughts on issues I had never considered.
               Sharing your thoughts helps you to refine them. My comments often show the embarrassing spectacle of retractions, apologies, belated nuancing, mind-broadening, and general signs of thinking in progress.
4)      Resist blogging on what you are not really interested in. Resist commenting on the controversy du jour unless you feel strongly about it, or your blog will become like everyone else’s. It will first bore you, and then your readers—or vice-versa— in a deadly circle of miserable boredom.
5)      “If poetry does not come as naturally as leaves to a tree, it better not come at all,” Keats wrote. The same with blog posts. Straining to find something to write about is a kiss of death for a blog. Better wait till the inner wells of thought and feeling well up again. Let your blog rest until you have something you feel strongly about that you really want to say. Blogging for the sake of blogging, just for the sake of posting something, is a crime against both yourself and your readers, in my opinion. 
Fortunately, I usually have 5 or 10 ideas I could happily develop. When nothing comes to mind, I scroll my drafts folder for the 100-200 posts  or ideas for posts I have in draft form. Doing that, however, is a sign that there is something, just beneath the surface of consciousness that needs exploring, but which I don’t want to. Hey, exploring one’s inner reservoir of thoughts, motives, fears and emotions can be painful. (Not everything I write lands up on the blog of course; some goes to a journal.)
Just random thoughts. How is one most likely to stay the course and not burn out?
  

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Comments

  1. Anita Mathias says

    July 5, 2011 at 11:12 pm

    Thanks much, Rhoda. I would have found blogging really difficult when I had young kids. Not the writing, but the getting something into a finished form once a day or so.

  2. Rhoda says

    July 5, 2011 at 10:00 pm

    That's very interesting reading! I love how you scheduled your blogging. I have just started doing something similar, but your ideas are really helpful so I will probably add them to mine 🙂 I also feel like my blogging is a calling in that I feel like God wants me to share what I'm learning.

  3. Anita Mathias says

    July 5, 2011 at 8:28 pm

    Thanks Harriet. It's funny, isn't it, that we go through far more angst about why we blog than why we write!

  4. Thecurateswife says

    July 5, 2011 at 8:17 pm

    Excellent food for thought Anita. I often ask myself why blog? It provides me with a creative outlet. It challenges me to master new technology.Like you said, it is great therapy – and useful to have comments from others.

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Wandering Between Two Worlds: Essays on Faith and Art

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The Story of Dirk Willems

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Recent Posts

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anita.mathias

Writer, Blogger, Reader, Mum. Christian. Instaing Oxford, travel, gardens and healthy meals. Oxford English alum. Writing memoir. Lives in Oxford, UK

Images from walks around Oxford. #beauty #oxford # Images from walks around Oxford. #beauty #oxford #walking #tranquility #naturephotography #nature
So we had a lovely holiday in the Southwest. And h So we had a lovely holiday in the Southwest. And here we are at one of the world’s most famous and easily recognisable sites.
#stonehenge #travel #england #prehistoric England #family #druids
And I’ve blogged https://anitamathias.com/2020/09/13/on-not-wasting-a-desert-experience/
So, after Paul the Apostle's lightning bolt encounter with the Risen Christ on the road to Damascus, he went into the desert, he tells us...
And there, he received revelation, visions, and had divine encounters. The same Judean desert, where Jesus fasted for forty days before starting his active ministry. Where Moses encountered God. Where David turned from a shepherd to a leader and a King, and more, a man after God’s own heart.  Where Elijah in the throes of a nervous breakdown hears God in a gentle whisper. 
England, where I live, like most of the world is going through a desert experience of continuing partial lockdowns. Covid-19 spreads through human contact and social life, and so we must refrain from those great pleasures. We are invited to the desert, a harsh place where pruning can occur, and spiritual fruitfulness.
A plague like this has not been known for a hundred years... John Piper, after his cancer diagnosis, exhorted people, “Don’t Waste Your Cancer”—since this was the experience God permitted you to have, and He can bring gold from it. Pandemics and plagues are permitted (though not willed or desired) by a Sovereign God, and he can bring life-change out of them. 
Let us not waste this unwanted, unchosen pandemic, this opportunity for silence, solitude and reflection. Let’s not squander on endless Zoom calls—or on the internet, which, if not used wisely, will only raise anxiety levels. Let’s instead accept the invitation to increased silence and reflection
Let's use the extra free time that many of us have long coveted and which has now been given us by Covid-19 restrictions to seek the face of God. To seek revelation. To pray. 
And to work on those projects of our hearts which have been smothered by noise, busyness, and the tumult of people and parties. To nurture the fragile dreams still alive in our hearts. The long-deferred duty or vocation
So, we are about eight weeks into lockdown, and I So, we are about eight weeks into lockdown, and I have totally sunk into the rhythm of it, and have got quiet, very quiet, the quietest spell of time I have had as an adult.
I like it. I will find going back to the sometimes frenetic merry-go-round of my old life rather hard. Well, I doubt I will go back to it. I will prune some activities, and generally live more intentionally and mindfully.
I have started blocking internet of my phone and laptop for longer periods of time, and that has brought a lot of internal quiet and peace.
Some of the things I have enjoyed during lockdown have been my daily long walks, and gardening. Well, and reading and working on a longer piece of work.
Here are some images from my walks.
And if you missed it, a blog about maintaining peace in the middle of the storm of a global pandemic
https://anitamathias.com/2020/05/04/a-mind-of-life-and-peace/  #walking #contemplating #beauty #oxford #pandemic
A few walks in Oxford in the time of quarantine. A few walks in Oxford in the time of quarantine.  We can maintain a mind of life and peace during this period of lockdown by being mindful of our minds, and regulating them through meditation; being mindful of our bodies and keeping them happy by exercise and yoga; and being mindful of our emotions in this uncertain time, and trusting God who remains in charge. A new blog on maintaining a mind of life and peace during lockdown https://anitamathias.com/2020/05/04/a-mind-of-life-and-peace/
In the days when one could still travel, i.e. Janu In the days when one could still travel, i.e. January 2020, which seems like another life, all four of us spent 10 days in Malta. I unplugged, and logged off social media, so here are some belated iphone photos of a day in Valetta.
Today, of course, there’s a lockdown, and the country’s leader is in intensive care.
When the world is too much with us, and the news stresses us, moving one’s body, as in yoga or walking, calms the mind. I am doing some Yoga with Adriene, and again seeing the similarities between the practice of Yoga and the practice of following Christ.
https://anitamathias.com/2020/04/06/on-yoga-and-following-jesus/
#valleta #valletamalta #travel #travelgram #uncagedbird
Images from some recent walks in Oxford. I am copi Images from some recent walks in Oxford.
I am coping with lockdown by really, really enjoying my daily 4 mile walk. By savouring the peace of wild things. By trusting that God will bring good out of this. With a bit of yoga, and weights. And by working a fair amount in my garden. And reading.
How are you doing?
#oxford #oxfordinlockdown #lockdown #walk #lockdownwalks #peace #beauty #happiness #joy #thepeaceofwildthings
Images of walks in Oxford in this time of social d Images of walks in Oxford in this time of social distancing. The first two are my own garden.  And I’ve https://anitamathias.com/2020/03/28/silver-and-gold-linings-in-the-storm-clouds-of-coronavirus/ #corona #socialdistancing #silverlinings #silence #solitude #peace
Trust: A Message of Christmas He came to earth in Trust: A Message of Christmas  He came to earth in a  splash of energy
And gentleness and humility.
That homeless baby in the barn
Would be the lynchpin on which history would ever after turn
Who would have thought it?
But perhaps those attuned to God’s way of surprises would not be surprised.
He was already at the centre of all things, connecting all things. * * *
Augustus Caesar issued a decree which brought him to Bethlehem,
The oppressions of colonialism and conquest brought the Messiah exactly where he was meant to be, the place prophesied eight hundred years before his birth by the Prophet Micah.
And he was already redeeming all things. The shame of unwed motherhood; the powerlessness of poverty.
He was born among animals in a barn, animals enjoying the sweetness of life, animals he created, animals precious to him.
For he created all things, and in him all things hold together
Including stars in the sky, of which a new one heralded his birth
Drawing astronomers to him.
And drawing him to the attention of an angry King
As angelic song drew shepherds to him.
An Emperor, a King, scholars, shepherds, angels, animals, stars, an unwed mother
All things in heaven and earth connected
By a homeless baby
The still point on which the world still turns. The powerful centre. The only true power.
The One who makes connections. * * *
And there is no end to the wisdom, the crystal glints of the Message that birth brings.
To me, today, it says, “Fear not, trust me, I will make a way.” The baby lay gentle in the barn
And God arranges for new stars, angelic song, wise visitors with needed finances for his sustenance in the swiftly-coming exile, shepherds to underline the anointing and reassure his parents. “Trust me in your dilemmas,” the baby still says, “I will make a way. I will show it to you.” Happy Christmas everyone.  https://anitamathias.com/2019/12/24/trust-a-message-of-christmas/ #christmas #gemalderieberlin #trust #godwillmakeaway
Look, I’ve designed a journal. It’s an omnibus Look, I’ve designed a journal. It’s an omnibus Gratitude journal, habit tracker, food and exercise journal, bullet journal, with time sheets, goal sheets and a Planner. Everything you’d like to track.  Here’s a post about it with ISBNs https://anitamathias.com/2019/12/23/life-changing-journalling/. Check it out. I hope you and your kids like it!
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