What’s The Point

I haven’t posted on  my blog in several days. I’ve been busy. But the real reason is that I haven’t had anything to say. I have been observing. People are easily distracted. They are bombarded with information and if you want to be heard, you better have something worth saying and you better just say it. 

Maybe these thoughts are birthed in two weeks of watching political conventions. After a few hours of that I just want to scream, “Just tell us the simple truth.” “What’s really important? What are you trying to say?” 

I was in a restaurant last night with my wife, grand daughter and her boyfriend. I noticed that within minutes of getting seated out came the smart phones. Not just at our table but throughout the restaurant. We’ve got cable TV, high speed Internet, instant messaging, smartphones, video games, Facebook, Twitter, and satellite radio with 150 channels. We live in an age of communication overload. Yet we don’t seem to get the point. We don’t give even those we love much chance to reach us.

Because we are easily distracted, if we are to make a point, even with those we love, we better get to the point and not dawdle. I recently read a column, written by a pastor. He noted:  “After we moved to Mississippi in 2005, Marlene and I had the privilege of attending many different churches. I found it instructive to sit in the pew for the first time in 26 years and simply take in what was happening all around me. Here’s something I noticed early on. Sermons seem a lot longer in the pew than they ever seemed in the pulpit. I was amazed at how quickly my mind would wander.”

I have come to recognize that for me doing a blog is multipurpose. On one level it’s an opportunity to think out loud. I can obtain that purpose by rambling on for pages. But the other purpose is to occasionally make a point. To accomplish that purpose I need to have a point and concisely express it. This has become especially important to me because beginning on September 16th I am taking my blog into a new arena. At 6 p.m. on that Sunday night I will start the Nick’s Talk series at Amana Christian Fellowship. I want it to be a time of encouragement and desperately don’t want to waste anyone’s time. I don’t want to just lead another meeting or create an event that anyone feels obligated to attend. I want it to have a point.

Please be in prayer for that project and for all of us that the important things in our hearts will find their way through the mass of words out there and get to the hearts of those we love. That’s the point. That’s the only point.

Be blessed.

Nick