Eighth Day of Advent: Why This Blog?

I am away from my usual habitat this morning, and as often happens, my thoughts take a different path than if I were at home in my study.  It is strange how a new and different environment can affect our patterns of thought and activity.  My daily blog, "While It Is Day," expresses my thinking on any particular morning.  It is not a polished piece of writing and it isn't meant to be.  It is usually a fragment of thought that comes to me, sometimes, seemingly,  out of nowhere,  and sometimes based on my thoughts about something I've read or heard from some source other than myself.  Often I simply share what I've written in my journal for that day or a quote that is meaningful to me.  There are also times when I focus on my travel experiences, or gardening, my own personal history, or some social issue, or on a particular season of the year as I have in recent days with my focus on Advent.  The blog is an  avenue for the unapologetic expression of my thoughts, my "stand" on various issues, and my faith.

So why do I share this blog with my Facebook friends?  It began with something my mother said at the time of my retirement from being actively engaged in preaching.  She said something like, "How will you say now the important things you have to say, which you've always been able to say in the pulpit?  These words came back to me after my mother's death in September 2014.  If my mother thought I had some important things to say, then, I needed a new way to say those things she thought important!   The blog, "While It Is Day" was created a month later.

There is a second reason I share this blog with you.  I believe the most important service I can render in this time of retirement is to awaken within my companions along the way a real faith in their own spiritual nature.  My hope is that "sometimes" the blog, "While It Is Day" speaks to the inner you, and especially in this season of Advent.