Five Hundred

I hit a milestone with my last post; I have published five hundred articles. I consider writing to be my ministry in this season of my life, so those articles and the five books I have on Amazon represent the fruit of my labor. No, that’s not right. I don’t know what fruit my labor has produced. I write because I believe God has given me something to say; the change in my readers’ lives is the fruit. I am reminded of a song by Ray Boltz, “Thank You.” In it he imagines he has gone to Heaven and the people he has impacted throughout his life come to him to thank him for “giving to the Lord.” They say, “I am a life that was changed.”

I have no idea how many lives may have been affected by my writing. My books on Amazon are still setting records for the longest time at the top of the not-selling list. The statistics feature on my blog reports that I have had over seventy thousand views, but I am convinced that a large number of those are an anomaly. I suspect some type of robot program is sweeping through the articles and registering views that are not real readers. My largest audience in the last seven days is from Hong Kong, of all places, registering hundreds per day. Last October I supposedly had one thousand views per day from Singapore. Myanmar showed one hundred fifty on one day last year.

Those numbers are ridiculously out of proportion since I have only five hundred articles. Readers would have to open each one twice a day to hit one thousand views. Not likely. However, during my blog’s history, I have had views from around the world on a regular basis. For quite a while, Russia showed the largest readership after the US. China has risen to the top lately. India and most of western Europe regularly appear in the stats. At one time there was an obvious web crawler showing up with a name in Cyrillic, so I suspect that was a robot, although why the Russians wanted to check up on me is still a mystery.

Most of the time, the referring URL’s and the devices used suggest personal use, however. It humbles me to think that people from around the globe are reading my blog. I am looking forward to that Ray Boltz experience so that I can see how God has used me. Understand, I am not bragging. Seventy thousand views in all the years I have been publishing is a drop in the ocean compared to today’s more popular blogs. Seventy thousand per day would be marginal for many of them. I don’t care. I believe God is using me in His way for His glory. How He does it or why He does is not for me to know. Not yet.

I am not sharing this for self-aggrandizement. There is a lesson here for every believer. There are many of God’s servants in the Bible who did what they were told and never knew how important it was. Think of Abraham waiting his whole life for the promise of a great nation from his offspring but never seeing come to pass. Think of Joseph spending years in prison and then in Pharoah’s house not knowing why. Think of Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt and through the desert only to be kept from entering the promised land himself. Think of David being chased by King Saul for years after he was anointed as Saul’s replacement. Think of Saul the persecutor seen from the perspective of Paul the Apostle.

I have college degrees, years of ministry experience, published books, and this little blog. I say with Paul that I count all of that as dung, “because of the surpassing greatness of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.” I also agree with Paul that I am the least of my Lord’s servants. That doesn’t keep me from hoping that something of eternal value has come from my labors. When Paul told the Romans that all things work together for good for those who love God, I believe he meant that God’s good plan would be accomplished through the lives of his faithful servants. As I have said before, Paul’s life is proof that the “good” he referred to was not always evident in his life. When he catalogues all his trials as God’s bond slave, it is obvious that “good” didn’t mean healthy, wealthy and famous to Paul. “Good” meant that he would hear, “Well done” when he stepped into eternity with his Savior.

Toward the end of his life, Paul proclaimed that he had completed the race and kept the faith. He knew there was a crown waiting for him which he planned to lay at Jesus’ feet in humble gratitude for all Christ had done, not what Paul had done. Saul the persecutor had a great deal to be sorry for; Paul the Apostle had much to be thankful for: God had rescued him from the fate of his namesake, King Saul, and placed him on the path prepared for Paul the Apostle. I pray that I am more like Paul than Saul. I hope I will see the fruit of my ministry someday. Because I know God uses broken people like me, like Paul, I believe I will hear, “Well done” one day. I hope you too are looking forward to hearing from Jesus when you meet Him on the first day of the rest of eternity.

Related Posts: The Goodness of God in the Bad Times; Working All Things for Good