It’s been a quite season here on the blog lately. Several reasons for that.

First, I’ve been crazy busy: I’ve spent much of the past few weeks on the road. Three weeks ago, I was visiting some missionaries in Scotland. I might try and post some pictures at some point. It was a great trip and I greatly respect my brothers and sisters in Europe. The religious landscape in Scotland is made up of more than 50% who identify themselves as “religious nones” — that is, those who self-identify as having no religious affiliation / leaning. In this kind of environment, it’s tough to be a Christian, let alone share Christ with others. But these brave believers keep on loving God and loving others, letting their light shine for Christ. That was a great trip.

Last week, I was in Dallas for a preaching conference. I also had the chance to catch up with some of my very best friends. It’s such a blessing to have so many good friends who also serve as my colleagues in preaching.

But also, as I said in my one post in October, this year has been tough. I’ve struggled to find meaningful vehicles to give voice to what I’ve been feeling. If this year has proven anything, it’s that social media is incapable of bearing the freight of timely, reflective dialogue. Social media has become nothing more than an echo chamber of like-mindedness; you’re only going to post / comment on articles that you agree with — anything that you might disagree with, you’ll either ignore or easily disregard. The casualty in all of this is respectful discourse. So in this tinder box environment, I’ve limited myself to conversations among trusted friends. There’s been much that I’ve wanted to talk about this year, but this just isn’t the format where those discussions could occur.

So that’s led to this season of quiet. We’ll see if I can find some time to write more consistently in the weeks to come.