“An inheritance gained hastily in the beginning will not be blessed in the end.” Proverbs 20:21
A couple of years ago I watched a show that featured the story of Michael Larson. Back in 1984 Larson figured out the pattern for the game show Press Your Luck. He won an unprecedented $110, 237. That was serious jack for ‘84. It was over 5 times a persons annual income.
CBS found out pretty quickly that he was cheating. But they couldn’t do anything about it. They paid him his money and parted ways. For Larson, everything went downhill from there. His ex-wife noted that his obsession with making a quick buck absolutely consumed him. On one occasion he withdrew over $40,000 in one dollar bills to try to win a $30,000 prize. Unfortunately for Larson somebody broke into his house and made bank with all those 40,000 $1 bills.
Larson is a perfect illustration of Proverbs 20:21. Quick growth in the beginning (though not always) usually leads to a bitter taste in the end. Good growth tends to happen slowly and steadily over a long period of time. The same thing is true with ministry and blogging.
I noted awhile back that the speakers atT4G 2010, with the exception of Thabiti Anyabwile, had all been at their respective churches for over 15 years. The same thing is true in the realm of blogging. Consider this piece of advice from the interview that I conducted with Tim Challies:
Here’s the thing: blogging can be a great joy if you are content to keep writing regardless of whether anyone else reads along. When you can do this, you can avoid being driven by the numbers of visitors and you can avoid the allure of writing very pragmatically, choosing what you write about only because you think it will generate buzz. If you can be content with blogging for an audience of one, you will find much more contentment in blogging for an audience of one hundred or one million.
If you look at many of the faithful bloggers that we look up to they have the same thing in common with those on the T4G platform; namely, faithful plodding over a long period of time. Michael Larson became obsessed with making a quick buck and he ended up living in exile and dying alone of throat cancer. Be obsessed with following Jesus and being obedient to Him. Write in such a way that people’s only boast will be Jesus Christ. Then be content with 1 reader, 1 million readers, or anything in between.
Slow and steady building upon the unshakeable Rock is far more beneficial than a swiftly erected mansion built upon sand.
For Republican Christians their “enemy” fell and he certainly “stumbled”.