Why blog?

One of the things I had to ask myself before I set up my two blogs (this one, Reflections, and the Creative Finance & Management blog) - and will have to keep reminding myself of - is why do I want to publish material in blogs? Having seen some really great blogs, with useful and helpful material, I admit to feeling a little nervous – can I do as good a job?. On the other hand, the other thing that makes me wonder a bit is the prospect of wasting hours writing articles that no-one will ever read! The internet is full of blogs and I don’t know who reads them all!

I don’t really consider myself an expert in any sphere. I’m a qualified accountant, yes. I’ve had a fair bit of experience in doing Finance jobs, sure. But compared to the guys that write in the journals I read, my Finance is not quite that tied down. I’ve also studied the Bible quite a bit, but I’ve never been to theological college and so any articles on theology might not carry so much weight. I’m also a musician and song-writer, but I’m not someone anyone would look to for tips or advice!

So why am I writing two blogs, and about to start a third (Big Questions)?

Well, each of them has a slightly different purpose:

The Creative Finance & Management blog is for my reflections on my professional experiences. Even though I may not be a guru, and I don’t have my own toolbox of self-developed techniques and solutions to sell, I have had a pretty wide and varied career so far. And my learnings through the years, reflecting on my experiences, may be of value to people. Shared experiences often cement the learning from the text books, so my articles should in theory be complementary to those published in the Finance journals. And publishing the thoughts can demonstrate to potential clients that my experience is relevant, and that I have the intellect and positive energy to learn and improve. So I feel that publishing some thoughts on these subjects will be helpful, both to those seeking help in those areas and also a help to my business.

The Reflections blog (where we are now!) is really me sharing my wider life experiences. Reflections is really a good word. I do tend to think deeply about the things I experience, the trials I go through, the things I see and hear and read. And perhaps the product of that thinking may either help somebody somewhere to think through their own life experiences, or maybe I may just have hit on an insight or idea that will help somebody. I suppose also that it will show to anyone doing any research on me a bit more of the real me – my faith, my interests, my deep thinking, my personality and approach to challenges.

The Big Questions blog (when I get around to setting it up again) will fill a gap, I feel. I spent a lot of time, on train journeys between Basingstoke and London a few years ago, listening to MP3 seminars in Christian Apologetics by Prof Greg Bahnsen. And I felt that the approach he took to debating the truth of Christianity with unbelievers was quite refreshing. I know it was based on the earlier work of Cornelius Van Til, but Van Til’s writings were very much aimed at seminary students and philosophers (and are therefore a little mind boggling!). Bahnsen seemed to be the one making “Presuppositional Apologetics” accessible to all Christians. His burden was that all Christians should be able to defend the truths of Christianity. So my thought was to start a blog that discusses the truth of Christianity using the principles I had learned, in the hope that it may both help my Christian brothers and sisters talk about their faith, and that my unbelieving friends and blog-visitors would get some food for thought in considering what I think are life’s biggest questions.

Overall, I hope it becomes clear that I am trying to do something useful by blogging. Not only will it help friends, colleagues, clients, and others who know me, to keep track of what I am about and what I am thinking. It will also allow me to “give something back”. I know that sounds like a cliché, and perhaps that’s why I put it in quotation marks, but I guess it is somewhat true. I’ll finish off this article by explaining what I mean:

I’ve been having something of a mid-life crisis over the last few years – seriously! I haven’t bought myself a Porsche or a Ducati or run off with a young blond or anything like that. That’s the caricature. But my redundancies (3 of them in 7 years) and periods of unemployment have given me cause for a lot of navel gazing. And that has led to frustration, depression and uncertainty at times. Job hunting involves thinking and planning about what I want to work at, what sort of companies I want to work for, where I want to work, etc etc. After some lack of success I would start to question whether I was aiming at the right thing, and eventually I realized that after all that questioning I was starting to lose my moorings. I was questioning what I was living for. Why am I here? And perhaps I’ll expand on this in another article. But to cut a long story short, and get to the point, I realized I was trying to be something of some significance, and my depression was partly caused by the realization that I am half way through my life (God willing - if I don’t die suddenly) and I am not making a significant contribution to anything.

My next thought is the reason for the blogging. I then realized that famous people, those who do make a significant personal contribution to some area of life – the preachers, the world leaders, the entrepreneurs, the rock stars, the sports stars, etc – often cited quite simple, small influences that made a big impact on them and inspired them to do what they do. And I also realized how many people have thanked me for my influence on them, and how many people I can have a positive influence on in some sphere or other. If my children ever say when they grow up, “I remember my dad used to say…”, that will be great (as long as it’s something good!). But it’s not just my children. I have worked with hundreds of people, dealt with loads of recruitment consultants, managed teams of people, and have friends and family all around the world.

Perhaps my purpose in life is not to be personally significant. Perhaps my purpose in life is 100,000 small encouragements to my children, my family, my friends, my colleagues and clients, people I meet. And so I recall that the second way of summing up our human responsibility before God is, “love your neighbour as yourself.” My experiences, my personality, my brain, my personal reflections, my learning – they have all been given to me for a reason. And so, having accumulated all that over 39 years, it’s probably time to try and consciously give something back by passing on little insights and tips, and simply by sharing some experiences.

So I pray, as I start all these blogs, that all my thoughts, reflections, advice and insights may be glorifying to God, and will be helpful in some way to you, the reader.