I can remember when I first started blogging some 14 years ago and what really inspired me was the hospitality of the conversation. Everyone was allowed to come to the table and join the conversation. The tone was one of charity, of humility and of imagination. Someone brought something to the table, and we played with it. We stretched it to see if we could re-imagine something else. There was never an intent to break what some one brought. We treated one another with respect, and love. They always seemed like great things to build on.
But over the past couple of weeks, I've seen some pretty ugly stuff. Interjecting someones personal stuff into the thread of comments. I've seen harsh criticism when someone has tried to stretch the conversation. I've received extremely harsh e-mails over a couple of my posts. It always seems to be a little more hurtful when a person can't write there critique in the comments, but has to do it in the dark...so I'm the only one who sees it. I haven't put links to where this stuff is all coming from because that in a sense perpetuates the ugliness of it all.
Anyways...enough said. Lets get back to where we once were, imagining, working together, encouraging one another, stretching the conversation to build something beautiful. Something that would reflect the gospel, and the living reality that Jesus is, and is all about.
