On Blank Spaces — Tresta Payne

Sometimes there's that uncomfortable silence and you feel like you should insert something there, like everyone else is uncomfortable, too, and somebody should do something about it.

I think that silence and that discomfort are probably okay, though. Better to be silent than to insert some man-made thing in a place where God has ordained quiet.

Selah.

It felt like this blog was quiet for awhile, but is anything internet ever really quiet?

I would like to post in a very scheduled-and-planned sort of way, like every Tuesday and Thursday, and I would really like to have my posts planned out weeks in advance. (I even have a handy little planning sheet from Kat at HowTheyBlog.com to help me do that.)

I think if I wrote more prescriptive posts it would be easier to plan, easier to be consistent, and easier to create content to share with you. Because we all need more content, right?

I'm not really comfortable writing a lot of "prescriptive posts", though. I tell people all day long what to do and how to do it and when it should be done, so I really don't feel like doing that here.

(You're welcome.)

I do occasionally share good ideas I've collected from others or things I've learned from trial-and-lots-of-error, and I share it as more of an acknowledgment of common struggles and mutual sanctification, rather than trying to be your mother.

But sometimes I feel like there is nothing to write here and that stresses me a little, because there's no place on my schedule for "sporadic".

This flying-by-the-seat-of-my-pants type blogging is annoying but it's also discipline for me, in a good way. I'm challenged to pray my way through and also compelled to reveal that I don't have all the answers, don't have the prescription to solve every dilemma, don't even want every dilemma solved actually.

I'm reminded that there really is nothing new under the sun. All we can do as writers and readers and thinkers and lovers and pray-ers is to link arms and pull when someone's stuck, or push when someone's scared, and pray when we're all lost. Not because we are hopeless, but because we actually know that there is Hope and we just all need reminded of it in different ways and at different times.

You, the handful of friends and family who read my disjointed words, don't come here because you have some problem I can solve or because you need my wisdom to get through your day. So there's no pressure, really.

Except that words are weighty and eternal. And that's what keeps me on my toes and keeps me praying. It's what keeps me silent sometimes.

Thank you for reading. Thank you for every comment here and on Facebook and via email, because that is community and accountability. Thank you for bearing with my whining and inconsistencies.

And I know. I know that none of us needs more information or more entertainment, more blog posts or more links to helpful information via the world wide web, so thank you for spending some precious minutes with me here.

I keep coming back to this thought, from Oswald Chambers: