joy in feedback and insights from others

I am blessed when I get comments on my blog or by email from readers. I am often surprised as to how what I say impacts others. I am grateful of course, but also realize that sometimes people pick things up in a new way, or take it in a new direction...take something particular for their situations, or have a new insight. That is stretching. It makes me examine what I said, and the intent that informed it within me, often unconscious or at least deeper than I thought.

My nephew Brian is one who reads my posts from time to time in the midst of his busy life, and he did something interesting with my blog on being a new creation. He said that every moment we can do acts which are graces from God which are new creations. That was a lovely way to work with that truth, and a testimony to God's work through our incarnated lives...that we are Christ's hands and feet and minds and hearts here in the world. That is truly awesome and also terrifying in its implications.

For me, as a writer of this blog, it makes me realize more fully that each word I say can influence a reader and that I need to be very aware of that power and very prayerful about what I say. I guess that is particularly true about what I write on the team devotional blog, and I look forward to discussing these implications when we meet as a team in a few weeks. God keeps stretching me, and for that I am grateful.