To blog or not to blog? More to the point, what to blog about? After which comes the question of how not to create the one-millionth abandoned blog, born of a flurry of entries in the first month or two, and resting in endless silence thereafter. For most, a blog is more about self-expression and social media than it is about having a web site. It's not professional media - there’s no requirement to blog in timely, commercially viable, column length pieces weighing in on the latest water cooler news story. The blogosphere doesn’t sink or swim on market research, sponsors, or Nielsons, but on passions and interests. When the passions of a writer and the interests of readers meet, then, hey, you’ve got a blog. But even without readers, bloggers are still there, writing about their passions. Or maybe it’s just that writing is their passion. So if the heart of a blog is found in the heart of the blogger, then the blogger faces a question. What do I want to write about enough that I’ll do it whether or not anyone even wants to read about it? Friends & Family? Politics? Movies? Music? What is it that matters enough to make it worth spending those precious minutes it takes to put words to screen? Perhaps the answer, writ large, is all of the above. Maybe in the long run, it’s a matter of sitting down at the keyboard to see what happens. But in the short term, to get started, the answer is more simplistic. If a blogger wrote only one entry, communicated only one thing to a potential reader, then what would that thing be? If a person’s very life could communicate only one thing to all of humanity, then what should that thing be? Few questions are as simply answered. There is only one thing that matters, really matters, in this life. Ultimately there is no legacy to be carried on. There is no history to be repeated. All that is this world only matters while this world still is. And the only question that really, truly needs to be answered in the heart of every man and woman was the one asked of a man named Paul by a Roman jailer. "What must I do to be saved?" The answer isn't much more complicated than the question. The Bible may be 66 books long, but we can get to the message of salvation in just a few verses: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. ” (Romans 6:23) "For God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16) "But Christ indeed has been raised from the dead..." (1 Corinthians 15:20) "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works..." (Ephesians 2:8 & 9) Christianity in a nutshell, then, is simply this: We are all, without exception, separated from God by sin. We've all sinned, meaning no one who has ever lived has obeyed God perfectly. And the price of sin is death. Not just the physical death of this world, but the eternal death (and eternal hell) of separation from God. God sent Jesus to die in our place, and rise again, in order to pay the price for us to save us from our sin. That salvation doesn't save us from physical death, but it does ensure our eternal life with God in heaven. We cannot, of our own works, or of our own goodness, earn salvation. But to be saved, we only need to choose to believe or accept these things, and to confess this belief to God in prayer. But those are just my inadequate words of summary. Here's a simple explanation from the folks over at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association: Billy Graham - Steps to Peace (PDF) So if there could be only one blog post, or even only one thing that I communicate to anyone in my life, it would need to be this. And if this blog does soon join the ranks of false starts and blogs abandoned, at least it will have said something that matters. – revised October, 2026
