Learning to Blow Bubbles

Let me introduce you to my favorite cause-related blog.

It’s not fancy.  It’s not self-hosted.  Heck, it’s not even spell-checked.

And yet, I never miss an entry.  It regularly makes me cry.  I recently made my first donation, and I’ve considered tagging along on a future mission trip.

Why do I love it?  When I read I feel as if I’ve stepped  into Ashley’s shoes.  I can feel her love for the children.  I understand her heartbreak about not being able to fix everything that needs fixing–and am so awed by her willingness to keep “showing up” to do the part that she can.

What makes my infatuation with her blog even more amazing is that I am, in many ways, sooo not her target audience.  I am not a member of the church through which she does her work.  In fact our faith traditions are about as far apart as two Christian outlooks can be.  Prior to reading her blog, I spent little to no time thinking about Africa at all.

But those details don’t matter.  The blog doesn’t approach her work  from an intellectual level and she never tries to convince me of anything.  She simply opens a window into her world, shares why she does what she does,  and lets her obvious love (and she would say Jesus) do the rest.

Where’s the learning for me?

Passion is more important than precision.  By a lot.  If you scrub every post until it is technically perfect, adequately researched, and ready for peer review you have missed the point.

The purpose of your blog isn’t to show the world how smart you are*.

The purpose of your blog is to show your potential people how much you care.  And, if you are lucky, to give them a chance to walk a moment in your shoes so they can prepare themselves to join you on the path.**