Sunday, August 06, 2017

Commemorating the 500th Blog Post

Before the world of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, et al had become widely used, I started this blog as a way to share fun thoughts, quotes, wisdom, photography, book reviews, music, and encouragement on faith. It also served as a way to keep people in touch with my adventures while living in London and traveling around Europe.

When I started I didn't know that it would eventually turn into a blog primarily oriented towards encouraging people to pursue God's best in their lives. As a result of the process, I've learned a lot about both writing and website technology.

In school, I remember teachers talking about finding your voice as a writer and while I observed that writers had different styles, I didn't think of myself as having a particular "voice." However, as I've written more and more, my writing voice has developed into what you see in recent articles. In earlier posts, the writing had a sometimes whimsical or light hearted tone while also being informative or thoughtful but as the subject matter changed is now geared more towards inspiration and encouragement. Of course, I actively write and record songs and those posts make their appearance as well. Be sure to check out some of the songs on Spotify, iTunes, or YouTube.

The blog has been around through several seasons of life, starting geographically in Kansas City, then London, back to Kansas City, and then moving to Atlanta. Professionally, I've worked in both IT as well as Financial Planning. I've played in various bands, led worship for different church groups and Bible studies, and released a country/southern rock album called Southern's Who I Am. I've gone on a couple mission trips to the Philippines and Estonia as well. Some friendships have endured, others were for a season.

I've also had the opportunity to help two different authors write their first books and was very involved in the editing process. The most recent was Scorpions, Scones, and Your Favorite Playlist by my friend Danee.

As I read back over the articles, I'm glad that I took the time to write and capture pieces of my life and some of the things God was teaching me along the way. Many of the faith oriented articles came out of processing things with God during a quiet time or writing in my prayer journal. When writing an article, the advice can be just as relevant for the author as for the audience. It's one thing to write it and another to internalize it.

The name of the blog, The Pursuit of His Best, comes from a goal of mine and what I hope becomes a goal of those who read the articles. I want to pursue God's best in everything that I do. This sometimes slips from focus but it is what I try to keep coming back to. When I keep my eyes on Him and what He wants for my life, I'm confident that He will lead me to much better things than I could ever accomplish on my own.

Numbers are fun to me so I thought it would be interesting to revisit the most popular posts by view count as well as some of my favorites. According to the Blogger software, there have been 55,355 views with visitors from all over the world since the blog was started.

Top 3 Posts by Number of Views
1. The Friendship Hierarchy
2. Your Own Personal Board of Directors
3. Coffee Haiku

Some Favorite Faith Posts
If you'd like to checkout some past posts by category, click on one of the following categories.
Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more encouragement, music, and fun. If you want to subscribe via email so you don't miss a post, enter your email address in the box at the top left of the blog.

In pursuit of His best,

Andrew

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