It's been quite a year

Who would have imagined that “Tebowing,” “9-9-9,” “Occupy,” or “Arab Spring” would become meaningful terms? They weren’t part of our common speech when I started this little blog back on March 9. I’m happy to report at year’s end I’ve had close to 8000 page views. I’m amazed at that number, although I know it is small potatoes compared to others on the web. But I’m not famous like other bloggers are. (That’s my attempt at a joke. Let me know if I need to explain it.) My most viewed posts were about Tim Tebow, Penn State, Love Wins, and Jim Leyland. Maybe I should just stick to sports. I’ve declared I’m done writing about Tebow, but if I still wrote about him, I’d write about Bill Maher’s stupid Tweet referencing Tebow last weekend. If that’s not religious persecution it’s at least religious bad taste. Imagine the uproar if Tebow were to say something aimed at Bill Maher that referenced Hitler and Satan. My take on Tim T at this point is that while the jury is still out on his NFL QB skills, he’s the real deal in terms of humility and sincerity. I’m impressed with how he handles himself.

But enough about Tebow. Let’s move on to a subject I really like. Me. Something significant is happening to me, but you have to read through some other stuff to find out. In addition to writing here, I’ve reached a larger audience writing for two other blogs (The 12 and Think Christian) and for Words of Hope and Spotlight Radio. The Spotlight site went over one million hits in October. Most of those come from Vietnam, Korea and Ecuador. (When I wonder why posts on this site that I think are important aren’t viewed by more people, I comfort myself by thinking how popular I am in other parts of the world.) According to Google, even this little blog has been viewed over 1000 times by people living outside the United States. I know folks in Germany, Belgium and Sweden and understand why those countries would top the list, but this blog has also been viewed over 50 times by people in Russia. I like to imagine some guys in Siberia trying to keep up with the buzz about Tim Tebow. Thanks, whoever you are.

Okay, here’s my news. A new year brings new challenges, and I have accepted a new vocational challenge which begins next week. A couple of days before Christmas I was invited to become the new Vice President of Advancement and Communications for my alma mater, Western Theological Seminary, in Holland, Michigan. I am honored and very grateful to be able to serve the seminary and the Reformed Church in America in this way. Faithful readers may wonder what this will mean for this blog. I don’t know yet. The people who read this blog could make everything easy for me by becoming big donors to the seminary. Sounds good to me. Oh wait, I forgot about the guys in Siberia. Think they’ll go along? This might be tougher than I thought. Anyway, I plan to keep posting, although I know I’m not going to have as much time going forward as I’ve had. But I know I’ll keep reading, writing, watching and saying things, and I plan to keep sharing my reflections with you, as long as you keep reading.

Happy New Year.