I was really excited when Alise came on board with this Series. Ever since I started reading her blog, I’ve felt like she was my homegirl. She’s a busy girl, though, and I didn’t know if it would work out for her to participate. Thankfully, for me and you too, she’s a gracious girl, and I welcome you to read her contribution. Thank you, Alise!
(also “girl” means awesome woman)
Alise is married to an amazing man and is mom to four incredible kids. She enjoys writing, playing keyboards in her cover band, eating soup, and Oxford commas. She is the editor of “Not Alone: Stories of Living with Depression” and is currently editing “Not Afraid: Stories of Finding Significance”, both with Civitas Press. She blogs regularly at alise-write.com, and you can connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.
More Influential than Klout
-by Alise Wright
Blogging is kind of a funny thing.
Absolutely anyone can go set up a blog and start writing right now. Heck, someone probably read that last sentence and thought, “You know, that’s true,” stopped reading, and started a blog. I’m glad my writing could inspire you.
And there it is. As soon as we have anyone reading our words, we have this power. It won’t happen every time, but when we write, we become influential. Not like the way Klout tells us that we’re influential, but in a more real way. We can shift perspectives. We can persuade decisions. We can impact conversations.
Often, however, we forget that our readers and commenters have the ability to influence us as well.
I post regularly about relationships that are dangerous and those kinds of posts tend to elicit strong reactions.
Because for the most part, we tend to read people who think like us, I often get positive comments. People will say that they have felt the same way, but didn’t know how to say it. They will share that they appreciate a different perspective being presented. Sometimes folks will tell me that I’m a true Christian for speaking out in favor of bridge building.
In these instances, it’s easy to allow people to influence my view of my faith.
Often, however, in these same posts, I get reactions that are not so supportive. People will suggest that my perspective is damaging. They will call me deceived. I’ve had people tell me that my views about things like cross-gender friendship, or LGBT affirmation, or atheist dialog without the goal of conversion indicate that I’m not a Christian at all.
In these instances, it’s easy to allow people to influence my view of my faith.
This is not how faith works. Our community can help shape our faith and can encourage us in the day to day application of that in our lives, but people on the outside don’t get to tell us if we’re real Christians or not.
One way to sort that question out is to look at what the Bible has to say.
In Philippians 2:12-13 we read, “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed – not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence – continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”
We work out our own salvation. We allow God to work in us.
My salvation isn’t determined by the number of people who agree with my point of view versus those who disagree. It isn’t determined by the person who thinks I’m a real Christian or the person who thinks I’m a pagan. It isn’t determined by inclusions on one list or exclusions on another.
My salvation is something that I work out with the One who calls me his child.
That’s the only influence that really matters.
# # #
Have reader comments ever influenced you or challenged your faith?
I spent some time at the Festival of Faith and Writing trying to figure out how we validate our own writing. On the one hand, it’s hard to know if I’ve written something “good” until someone validates it, but I also don’t want to be a slave to the opinions of others… tricky business that!
The more thoughtful the comments (positive or negative) the more chance I’ll let them shape the nuances of my ideas and beliefs. I guess it’s all about that fine line between not being tossed by the waves (James, double-mided reference there) and still remaining teachable. We obviously need to have core beliefs, but the part that’s up for grabs is harder to navigate.
I have to tell you, I don’t remember reading any thing that covered this topic from this perspective, so thank you for bringing it up, Alise.
This is such an important read for those of us who like to share our lives in such an open space. I have not dealt with negative comments, and honestly I’ve not dealt with many comments at all. Empty comment boxes once caused a little tear after putting so much “out there” to be read. But I am thankful now with or without a comment. All I know is that I have a few stories to tell along the way that I feel God has pricked me to tell. Like you stated above He is what matters. I am overwhelmingly thankful for growth I receive from others, but my eyes must stay on Him. This is why I titled my blog “Spiritual Glasses.” It is a reminder to look through the lens of Christ. I love and appreciate your writing. Thank you for doing it in such an honest way.
Largely, I know what–and why–I believe. So while my core beliefs are intact, I suppose comments have caused me to, at times look at those values anew, or at the very least consider nuances I hadn’t thought of.
Then again, my audience seems to be fairly small at the moment, and by and large I’ve not been challenged.
I thought this: http://randomlychad.com/2012/04/gods-fuk-you.html would bring a whole lotta heat, and only one person on Twitter kind of called me a heretic.
I’ll get back to you when my platform is larger.
Man, that’s the truth. But even beyond my writing, I sometimes feel like I need to have my faith itself validated. And that’s pretty frightening when I step back at all. Because if it can be validated by a blog comment, it can be invalidated by a blog comment. Eek!
I definitely agree. And there are definitely some people that I allow to speak to my faith level (whatever that means) with more authority. But even then, it’s pretty shaky ground.
Thanks again for having me!
Thank you Jennifer! I wholly echo Jon Acuff’s advice to take advantage of the “smaller” time, when you can be more honest without taking heat for it. Some of my most controversial posts were written when my blog was considerably smaller than it is now (not that it’s big!), and I appreciate that I was able to write when primarily friendly people were reading. It can be harder now to write some things because there are a lot more people in the loop at this point, so the potential for a negative response has increased.
What’s weird is that it definitely doesn’t take many negatives to shake stuff. Well, at least for me. I don’t have any where near the backlash as some other (significantly more popular) bloggers, but even just one or two “you’re going to hell” comments can mess with me big time. I’m getting better at giving comments the appropriate weight, but sometimes those bad things can kill a day for me. But I guess that since it used to be a whole week, that’s improvement! ;-D