If you like to write, if you write a Christian blog, then it is likely that your writing is an expressive spiritual practice. Yet as I mentioned before, there is a difference between a spiritual practice and a hobby, just as there is a difference between a spiritual practice and a profession. Let’s use writing as an example of this…

So, you love to write and you start a blog to write about something, say your Christian walk. It’s a wonderful outlet for you, very relaxing, a great way to get away from the stress of the day and so, you write a post or two whenever you have some time and an idea. If somebody reads one of them, that’s great, and you’re amazed when someone follows you or likes a post. That is a wonderful hobby, one you can do even on the coldest of winter days, or the rainiest of summer nights. Then maybe you hear a sermon or attend a Bible study or watch a video that brings up a certain point from Scripture that you really are interested in; you start to do some study and prayer on the subject and God really opens your eyes; an epiphany! You decide to blog about it, you tell the whole story and lo and behold someone leaves a comment that says they have never seen anything like that before and it has changed their whole attitude and brought them closer to God… and it hits you: Blogging can be a ministry!

Now you get serious about your blog, you bring God into your writing, asking for His guidance, giving the whole process over to Him. You start blogging regularly; it becomes the best part of the day for you, it brings you closer to Him.

Writing has become a spiritual practice that is expressive of your relationship with God as He guides you through each step. The same can be true if writing is your profession.

If that’s your story then the day will come when someone tries to discourage you, of that you can be sure. Listen to God, not to the nonsense. Twelve years ago or so, a well-known pastor asked me what my ministry is these days. I told him I wrote a Christian blog. He laughed and said that a blog isn’t a ministry, that he tried it once and nobody read his posts, so it can’t be a ministry and that I was wasting my time and needed a real ministry. I replied that I had over 1,500 followers and that I had opportunity to reach them twice a day, seven days a week: Do the math. How many people do you reach a week?

His face turned bright red and he gave me the look of death and said, “Well I don’t have time for that.”  Since then I’ve had roughly the same conversation with quite a few preachers, and the truth is that the demands on their time are great, and they often really don’t have the time for writing.  God just has a different plan for them, and that’s perfectly fine, but don’t let anyone pull you away from your writing if it is how God draws close to you. If it is how God draws you close to Him, then by all means take it very seriously.

Of course, writing can be an expressive spiritual practice in other forms as well. You might write novels or commentaries or Bible studies for kids or adults, maybe home study guides or poems that inspire. Let God guide you and you might be surprised at where it ends up, I know I’ve been surprised where it has taken me.