Jonah and me

It’s been a while since my last blog post.  Primarily because I’ve been hiding out.  I’m not generally thought of as being shy or timid, but the last few years, I have been an ardent avoider.  Not in all areas of my life, just one in particular.  This one.

If you scroll below this post, you’ll see that the last post here was in 2015.  Hard to believe that I haven’t written anything here in 2 1/2 years.

You might well ask why.

I didn’t realize until recently that I was having a Jonah moment.

Jonah, according to scripture, was also an avoider. He was given a specific task to go to a specific group of people to tell them to repent of their sin.  This group of people, the Nineveh-ites, some 120,000 strong, were a vile society and God had called Jonah to call them to repentance.  Jonah, instead, goes in exactly the opposite direction.  He’s trying to avoid the difficult task.

Four years ago, I began working on an idea. I set up a separate blog and a facebook page and worked at it here and there.  Two years later, after a move, I resurrected said idea and developed it into a presentation which I gave at our current church in January 2016.  I had several people tell me at that time that I was a gifted speaker and that I should turn it into a book and maybe start looking at giving that presentation elsewhere.  These were people who I respected, who knew of my spiritual gifts and were encouraging me to seek God’s leading in this area.

Instead, I decided to hide.

I stopped writing altogether and focused on easier things.  I was still using some of my gifts and abilities but I was really hiding out.  In January of last year, I even took on a new job.  This new job totally fit my skills and abilities, but it was really just another place to hide out.

Well, I’m not hiding any longer, thanks to a mission trip and the devotions during that time which God used to call me out of hiding and point out that I was acting like Jonah.

Expect to see more from me here.

 

 

I know why I’m here… Do you?

OK, the funny thing is that I started this blog really without much of a purpose.  It just seemed like fun to share my thoughts with others.  Last Wednesday or Thursday, though, I found out about learn.wordpress.com which is their tutorial for new bloggers.  Ha, I find it about 7 months after I’ve been blogging.  Probably should have read it back in the day….  oh, well, story of my life!

Anyway, one of the first things learn.wordpress.com suggests is that you decide on the purpose of your blog. They call it step two: Get focused.  And the first step to getting focused is to decide on what you are going to blog about.  So, that’s what I’ve been doing.  Praying about and deciding on a purpose for my blog.

It used to be that I would post random thoughts as they popped into my head, hence the title, Natalie’s musings. I’d write about whatever.  One day, it might be my thoughts on adoption, another day’s post might be on managing my weight, personal finance, or even my faith.

So now I know why I’m writing, but I’m also curious about why you, dear reader, come visiting….

So here’s a quick and easy way to tell me.  Hopefully one of the poll answers works for you, if not, please leave me a comment!  Looking forward to hearing back from you.  Check out tomorrow’s post when I’ll share why I’m here.