January 1, 2010

I'm sure many readers thought today's question would be "What is your New Year's Resolution?" Well, today there is no question. When I started asking daily questions in September of 2008, my hope was for people to think and be challenged to answer honestly about things we may not always be honest about. I hoped that, given an anonymous forum, people might be encouraged to be honest about things that enslave them, or hold them back, or simply just frustrate them. Yet, somewhere along the way, some readers stopped thinking and started only reacting. Lashing out and saying things they wouldn't say in real life. The hatefulness and judgments expressed in the comments on this site have brought me sadness, embarrassment and anger. My feelings have been hurt. My friend's feelings have been hurt. People have been ostracized. Strangers found an ugly perspective of people professing Christianity in general. Not everyone has been that way and I appreciate those who restrained themselves from lashing out. But, as in most areas of life, the few ruin it for the rest. My "resolution" for the year is to try to weed out the things in my life that do not direct me in the path of God. This blog, this experiment, falls in the category of things to let go. I apologize to those who have been hurt by things said here. I hope that the resounding gongs and clanging symbols have not hindered someone's walk of faith. I pray that all the hearts represented here will be healed where appropriate and softened where appropriate. Maybe the experiment failed, but I hope we all learned something. Some of us need to think outside of the box. Some of us need to look from other's point of view. Some of us need to be honest with our spouses and loved ones. Some of us need to reach out to others. Some of us need to make wiser choices. And all of us need to strive to deepen our relationship with our Lord and Savior, and represent Him well in all our conversations and actions. This has been a fun experiment. I enjoyed so many of the discussions. I grin knowing we went international. I thank all those who submitted questions. But, like many things in life, this has run its course. Thanks for reading, however long or often you did. Thanks for commenting. And thanks for your honesty. I challenge us all to work on being lovingly honest with ourselves and each other. Sarah