I recently retired after four and a half decades invested in pastoral, educational, administrative and charitable endeavors. Entering this new phase of life, I thought I should start a blog to share my depth of wisdom garnered over the years. I quickly realized that any blog readers would soon see that the expanse of my wisdom was probably more muddy than deep. I persisted with the idea, as I saw in it a way to keep learning and growing, perhaps writing some words that may be useful to some people. Hence this blog.
But what should I call the blog? I wondered if it should just pick up my family name? TheBalfours.com. I shared my idea with my wife, a veritable fountain of wisdom and encouragement, and she asked a one word question: “why?” Why not have a title that reflects more the content than the author(s)? Of course, being the dutiful type of husband that always responds to his wife’s suggestions with alacrity, I looked up the domain name The Balfours.com to see if it was available. It was! Just before I reserved it, I felt a tiny tinge in my left side. Assuming it was related to last night’s pizza dinner, I was about to proceed and book the site, when my conscience seemed to rise up and suggest that I may not have given my wife’s idea enough consideration. Maybe wait a day to book the site name. After all, there was no huge rush. Plus it was getting near midafternoon, so as a newly retired individual, it was time for a quick nap!
As my wife’s idea began to gel in my mind, I turned to Mr. Google for some insights into naming practices for blogs. I discovered that there are many and varied opinions on how a blog should get its name. In fact, probably more material has been penned on how to name your blog than all those suggestion manuals for new parents on how to name their baby! There was advice on how to make your blog appear like a Headline news story. I thought: Gord retired! Didn’t sound like it would sell many papers. There was marketing advice on how to make your blog name promote your intended product. I don’t have a product to sell. Some suggested using a catchy phrase, even a foreign language title to draw people in. Something like, The Pink Spotted Moose, or Das Moosen Sprechen. None of these seem to fit, although seeing a pink spotted talking Moose would be interesting.
Finally, I had to wrestle with what I wanted my blog to do and to be. I had the general concept down pat: write a blog. But what did I want it to communicate? Apart from it being an outlet for my own pent-up inner author, what should it say? IF it was just to showcase me, was it worth the effort. Why would anyone read it?
Eventually I realized, as my wife did from the start, that if it was to mean anything at all, the blog needed to point to something both lasting and true. I needed to expound about something significant. I can think of nothing in my life that has been more lasting and true over the six and a half decades of my life than the Word of God. Hence, the blog title: Forever the Word.
So, I invite you to journey with me. Through this vehicle I hope to explore matters related to The Word of God from my own perspective. I can’t promise any stories about talking Moose (although the Bible does have an episode about a talking donkey). I don’t have any products to market. I do, however, have insights garnered from over 50 years of reading and study that have convinced me that Bible is true, trustworthy, lasting and beneficial. Isaiah, writing over 700 years before Jesus’s birth, stated:
The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God shall stand forever.
This is why my blog is named Forever the Word. Words that last forever are worth writing about.
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