Pastor Ryan Gaffney

Seven and a half years ago I put pen to paper on my first article having no idea what I was doing. Luckily I knew I had no idea what I was doing and set an achievable goal.

The blog then has to be the daily stuff. The stuff that hasn’t been combed out perfectly. The ideas that I haven’t thought through all the way yet.

With this post I celebrate my 200th half-baked idea!

Some of the posts from over the years make me cringe to look back on. Sometimes I surprise myself with how insightful I was. Sometimes I forgot to post for months at a time, sometimes I got long winded. Usually my spelling and grammar has been off.

Through it all I have had the opportunity to process my ideas onto paper, give myself an outlet for creative thought. I’ve had people from homes I left follow me through my wandering thoughts, and I have been able to practice crafting the written word in a way people might actually want to read. What an incredible collection of punched keys I have racked in over the years!

Thank you all for your participation in my personal development through this blog. And thank you for your patience when it falls short of standards set for things it’s not. Here’s to 200 more!

Do you ever notice how blogs tend to be filled with angsty prose about how nobody understands the author? I’ve always wondered why that is.

Some of you who are my more consistent readers may have noticed that I’m having trouble keeping up the regularity of this blog. Or maybe (I hope) not. But it’s true. Since I’ve arrived in Kansas I just haven’t had the drive to type I had previously.

So I got to thinking tonight. “I wonder if that’s because I’m happy”

Kansas is beautiful right now, the weather is great, I have a homeish home for the first time in years and the ministry is going really well. Last night I was able to sit in on out IV bible study for the first time and it was incredible, About a third of the group hadn’t made up their minds about Christ but were interested if figuring it out, and all of us from all of our different backgrounds were able to peacefully exegete the passage together.

Earlier tonight I was at a Crew meeting as part of my research in “spying out the land” which was also crazy fun, and everyone’s been generally accepting of me both as a friend and a spiritual leader.

Previously I was writing while in the middle of fund raising in between work as a Youth Pastor and a Campus Minister, and before that in 2008, I had an active blog while between work as a volunteer and a youth pastor. Both times I lacked a church, and had been ousted from my previous community. I wonder If I just needed an outlet, and now that people are listening to me in the meatworld again, I don’t need that outlet so much.

Wouldn’t that be strange? That an entire form of mass communication caters to authors in a particular emotional state? It would certainly explain some things though…

I’m going to try to prevent this blog from atrophying due to my happiness. But I wanted to let you know about it for  three reasons:

1: I think it’s really interesting and I want to hear your comments

2: I may decide to change the format shortly and talk more about my life, or about the subject of this weeks bible study or a chapter of some book I’m writing, and I want you to know why

3: Hey, at least it’s something to say right?