Keep Going

No one starts great.

Sometimes I forget this, and so I am glad for the reminder from Ailian Gan. Gan writes an interesting synoptic post about the development of Seth Godin’s blog.

If you don’t know who Seth Godin is, you should. In fact, stop reading this post right now and check out Seth’s blog. Then come back and we’ll talk.

Seth consistently, like daily, puts out great content. I mean solid, thought-provoking, revolutionize-your-work stuff. He writes as a marketer, but much of his emphases relate to ministry because he so often stresses the proper care of people and the quest for contributing meaningful work. I have translated many of his posts into ministry scenarios and found his advice very helpful. (Wisdom cries out from the street).

But as Gan notes, Godin didn’t start great. Like anyone, he had to put in the hours. He took years to develop his voice and hit his stride as a blogger. He had even published several books by the time he began his blogging, but the art of blogging required practice like anything else.

In a world replete with connectivity and information, we have access to so much content. We can listen to sermons from across the globe. We can read posts from the best authors. But sometimes when we plugin to this vast reservoir, we begin to make unfair comparisons. We compare our sermons to those of our favorite preacher and we hang our heads. We read a killer post from one of our favorite thinkers and we crumple up our scribbles.

But as Gan reminds us, everyone has an arc of development. Everyone. When we listen to the gifted preacher, we must remember we are likely hearing his 3000th sermon. We must remember they put in their time, and we must put in ours.

Of course, most of us will never have such grand audiences or make such a deep impact as our heroes, but the principle remains. Work hard. Study hard. Keep preaching. Keep writing. Keep counseling. Keep sharing. Keep selling. Keep trying. Keep going. Keep on keeping on!

“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9)