Blog Post Fail

September 26, 2012 — 9 Comments

Trisha and I view our role at RefineUs as an honor. We feel honored to be able to share a part of your day; to be a part of your relationships and a part of your spiritual journey. We routinely talk through blog post ideas and discuss themes and direction for content each week. I had a blog post outlined and thought through for today and everything seemed fine.

We got home from my grandma’s funeral last night around 11:00 PM. Ten hours of travel in 24 hours was hard. The funeral took an emotional toll on each of us, and we were all wiped. My plan was to watch a few minutes of Sportscenter to decompress, then write the blog post I had planned, then go to bed.

I opened my computer and the screen taunted me. Nothing felt like it flowed. Nothing seemed to be coming together. I was typing words, they were just work and not an overflow of my heart.

There was nothing to flow over…I was spent.

Then that voice in my head started up…the voice of insecurity disguised as pride.

“You have to do a blog post tomorrow, you didn’t do one today.”

“You have people counting on you for life-changing content, you just need to crank this out.”

“If you don’t write something then you will be letting a lot of people down.”

I closed my computer and just sat there in silence. I stood at a crossroads I had been to before. Do I do something out of an obligation; out of my own sense of pride; out of insecurity of not wanting to disappoint people, or do I simply go to bed and know that its okay to not try to give something that I don’t have to give?

I’m ashamed to admit how many times pride has won that battle. I can’t even tell you how many times my insecurity has driven me to speak, write or teach not out of an overflow of my heart, but simply because I wanted to be accepted, patted on the back or complimented.

Not last night. Last night was blog post fail. Last night I was reminded that RefineUs isn’t about me, Trisha or cranking out blog posts. It is about the refining work of Christ in each of our hearts. I don’t ever want to trade “cranking out a post” for the refining of my heart.

So while I’m sorry that there is no blog post for today…I’m thankful to be a part of a community like this that loves one another into the likeness of Christ.

Our commitment to you is to do our best to practice what we write. So, tomorrow may be blog post fail again…my bigger prayer is that we will choose to live out of the overflow of all that God is doing in our heart.

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Justin and Trisha

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Justin & Trisha are authors, bloggers, speakers and teachers in Nashville, TN. Their first book, Beyond Ordinary: When a Good Marriage Just Isn't Good Enough releases January 2013. You can find more info HERE.
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  • http://mostlyquestions.wordpress.com Bernard Shuford

    And if you “fail”, it’s fine, bro. Do NOT let “blogging” drive you to obligation. You have a ministry here, but it is not your primary responsibility in any moment of your life. Seriously. I appreciate what you guys do, but NEVER let this drive you downward.

    • http://refineus.org/ Justin and Trisha

      Thanks man!

  • Robert

    Thank you for this reminder. I have been in a situation where I and my wife have been urged to do things just because they are expected and “look good,” in order to appease people in our church. I just resigned recently because of it. It was just too much to have the things we were doing out of the overflow overlooked because of the things we weren’t doing. Maybe you didn’t intend for this to be an encouragement but it sure was for me!

    • http://refineus.org/ Justin and Trisha

      Love your faithfulness and conviction. Thank you for sharing that!

  • http://www.thechurchofnopeople.com Matt @ The Church of No People

    I had the same reminder over the weekend when my computer had to go into the shop for a few days. It was like a switch flipped in my brain. It was…freeing.

    • http://refineus.org/ Justin and Trisha

      Freeing indeed.

  • http://twitter.com/dljordaneku Darrell Jordan

    I guess it depends on what your definition of fail is. Today’s post seems to be a winner for me since I can take this and apply it to my marriage. We need to remember that our marriage is not just about me or my wife but us and that we need to be continually working toward oneness. I understand what you are saying and that you shouldn’t be posting just to post. So I still think it’s a winner. :)

    • http://refineus.org/ Justin and Trisha

      Darrell…thanks. that was kinda my point is that often what I view as a fail, when done with the right heart is a win. Love how you applied this to your marriage.

  • Lisa T

    Wow! I wouldn’t call it a fail at all – at least not for me – this was just what I needed to hear. We all have these days and it’s good to be to be reminded we aren’t the only one.

    Thank you for having the courage to put it all out there and being honest about it. So often we try to hide our struggles or insecurities when we need to admit them.