influence and thoughts on using your voice.

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Have you heard of Klout? It basically measures your internet influence based on a whole bunch of social media things. I was telling Klout that I think Donald Miller is influential in topics like Spirituality and Blogging and Faith and I thought “I would like to be influential about things that matter.”

I looked up what Klout says I’m influential about. You ready for this list? According to Klout, I am influential in regards to:

  • Music
  • Travel & Tourism
  • Glee
  • Amazon
  • Portland
  • Paris
  • Coldplay
  • Faith
  • Gospel
  • YouTube
  • Conferences
  • Justin Bieber
  • Seattle

…what? I mean, some of them I get. Like music, travel, Portland. Maybe even faith. Okay, and Justin Bieber. But I’ve never been to Paris, and I hardly am a Coldplay fan.

I sat for a little bit and wondered why I am influential about things that either mean nothing or… are things I’m not actually influential about. The answer didn’t even require much thought. I knew it before I even asked a question of myself. Somehow I just got quiet. Not in real life, mind you. In real life I got even more opinionated.

But I stopped organizing my thoughts and sharing them. I think I’ve just kind of become surrounded by people shouting nonsense and I don’t see the point of trying to compete.

Lately Donald Miller’s been writing these tweets that keep pissing me off because they have been stirring inside of me. I’m going to share some of them in hopes that some of you will suffer along with me.

“By writing, you are saying to God ‘I agree with you, you gave me a voice and the gift was not in vain.”
“If you fear the critics, you’ll never tell the truth. And if you don’t tell the truth, you’ll never change the world.”
“One of the top five regrets of the dying was not sharing their opinion. Lose twitter followers. Your opinion matters.”

Get it?

It’s time for me to find my voice again, to write about things that really matter (though I’m sure those pictures of Mickey Mouse really stirred something within you) because I care about things that matter. And I believe that I know people who care about them, too.

I just want to change my world. The whole world is a bit beyond my realm of influence, but I want to inspire and dream and dare. While on the phone with Gregory last night, I said (in relation to something else) “I wish I was created differently. I know that’s an insult to the Creator, and only matters because I know Him by name, but I really wish I was created differently.” Sometimes I do, because being me is exhausting.

Other times I feel in the depths of my soul that God has so much to do with me if I would just let him. Even though I love people and I love music, my responsibilities have always been with writing. Don’t ask me why, because I don’t think I’m very good at it and I don’t even enjoy writing that much. I do, however, enjoy the moment where I have said something.

I’ve got a lot to say. I’m not writing a book or hoping to make new friends (okay that’s a lie, I SO want new friends), I just need to start using the voice I’ve lost.

 

1 thought on “influence and thoughts on using your voice.

  1. There are a couple of things you might consider. For one, at no other point in the history of humankind has just anyone been able to, on the fly and with zero cost, instantly go share something with the rest of the world. Right now though, a homeless person can go to his local library, start up a blog, and come back every single day to say something to the rest of the human race. He may not have a home but he has the opportunity speak to the rest of the world. That’s actually pretty amazing. There must be some reason that God chose this point in time to give that opportunity to us. Maybe there are some people out there who have something important to say and they wouldn’t have had a very good opportunity to say it otherwise. Maybe there are more than just a few, maybe there are a lot of people. Maybe you are one of those people. Maybe I am as well.

    Your blog might be the only chance you get in life to share something with the rest of the world that perhaps they should hear. It would be a shame to waste that one chance never having shared it. I have a number of books that I am working on but, the way my life has gone so far, I think it’s a very real possibility that I might never have the opportunity to finish and publish any of them. That’s why I decided to start my blog; so that I can share my testimony and some of the wisdom and insight I have been blessed with in my walk with God. To share those things is my primary goal in writing my blog. My secondary goal is to let others see a little of who I am and, like you, perhaps find a person or two who deems me worthy of friendship.

    It’s nice and enjoyable to read a little about your daily and personal minutia. It endears you to your readers and in doing so gives more weight and meaning to the big important things you write about. If the minutia is all you write about though, then you are kind of wasting your voice. The parable in the Bible of the three servants and the master who gave them each some money before going away is often on my mind when I think about blogs. I really don’t want God to come back and call me a wicked servant then take away and give to someone else all that he has blessed me with — my ability to write well, the wonderful things I have learned through my relationship with him — all because I didn’t use a free platform to share those things with others, to invest those things in others so that the “spiritual wealth” God has sent my way might be increased.

    If it’s any encouragement, I think I rather like reading your blog so I will probably stick around for a while, if that’s alright.

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