A Year to Remember
Because if we forget it then we will be forced to repeat it.
Psalm 43:3 – Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling!
This year I was planning on taking a hiatus from the blogging world to plant a church. Well, that didn’t go as planned.
So I am back.
And, as I do every year, I like to give you an idea of just where this blog has been and where it is going.
So I took 9 months off from blogging. It was glorious, lol. I did all those bucket list items like climbing Mt. Everest, surfing Mavericks, and base jumping Shanghai Tower. But that gets bored pretty quick.
Actually, I did none of those things except in my dreams.
If you read last week’s post, you will find that 2016 has been a tough year for me. I had intended to be in full-time ministry by now and only using my business to supplement income but that didn’t happen so I needed to go back into what I know best, regional retail management, and put the ministry on hold. I also had health issues that kept me from surfing Mavs.
But this year has also seen some amazing things happen. Even though my ministry life has seen more frustrations than in year’s past, my faith has grown much deeper.
Mimi and I also, I believe, grew much closer than we ever have been. And that has also happened with the overall family.
As for the blog, I went away in January and returned at the end of September. This, of course, affected the overall numbers of people coming to the blog. For the year, I only reached about 1500 people, very low versus years past, but still pretty decent.
As for posts, I touched upon the churches in the book of Revelation, spoke about superheroes, and posted a few times about missions and our journey to Peru this year.
Psalm 19:8 – the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;
As I move into 2017 with this blog, this will be the 5th year for this site. In year’s past I have averaged about 11,000 visitors a year to the site and it is pushed out to almost 3,000 weekly. Unfortunately, the way WordPress works, I am unable to see people who come to my site from places like LinkedIn or use the “reader” function. Looking at my LinkedIn numbers, I am averaging about 150 per week clicking the link to my blog, so I am pretty sure I can add those to the mix. That alone adds almost another 8,000 viewers per year. So I am going to go out on a limb and say that this blog averages about 20,000 views per year in a full year.
This site has been shared 271 times this year. That’s pretty exciting because I am not sure what that means, lol. It doesn’t mean it is being shared on Facebook or Twitter from those apps directly, but I guess it is someone clicking the share button on my site and then posting to their Facebook or Twitter.
My most popular posts this year weren’t actually written this year. Spiritual Farting had the most (written in 2013) followed by Predestination and Election 1 & 2 (written in 2012). Mostly people are finding those through web searches. I think I must be the only person writing about spiritual farting, or at least it is a very small number of us.
This year my blog reached 58 countries. Much less than prior years, but again, I was dark for almost 10 months. The USA was the top viewer of my site followed by India, Canada, and Australia. But this blog has reached people in countries like Lithuania, Zambia, Malta, Bahrain, and Cyprus along with many others.
Here is what I have planned for 2017: more of the same.
As of now I plan to be posting at least once a week. I also plan on getting back into the Church Central blogging world as well by spring.
My first few posts of the year are going to be tough ones. A few days ago I posted on my Facebook a question to my friends: “What is Christianity about?”
Pretty big question, eh?
But I plan on doing a series at the beginning of the year about what Christianity is, what it isn’t, and why it matters. That should take up a few weeks, or maybe months lol.
As with all my posts, I am always looking for God to share those glimpses of grace that He has given me. And every time, even when the post is tough to understand or even shares the brokenness of myself, my family, or mankind as a whole, God provides me a lens into His kingdom to see a small part of it.
So I look forward to 2017 and sharing thoughts, proverbs, psalms, and theology with you all. Thanks for spending the past few years with me on this journey. I hope you will continue to join me on it.
Psalm 119:105 – Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path
boyradd 