Daily Archives: March 1, 2019

Blogs

Since more than a decade I have been writing my (almost) weekly blog. I knew I was not the only blogger in this world, but had no idea how many people are regular bloggers. After some Googling I learned that there are now an astounding number of ca. 152 million bloggers worldwide. And around the globe some 3 billion people are daily reading one or more blogs. My weekly blog is thus only one among very many. Some bloggers invest so much time in their blog that it is of commercial interest for businesses to sponsor them. I do not belong to that category, but I feel very honored that a few thousand people, spread all around the world, regularly read my digital column. If I sometimes happens to be a day later than usual, I actually get some concerned messages, such as: “You are not sick, I hope.”

I also follow a few blogs myself on a regular basis. One of these is Pearson Perspectives (https://www.pearsonsperspectives.com/blog), a product of Helen and Mike Pearson. Before their retirement both were connected with Newbold College in England. Mike taught ethics during almost all of his professional career, while Helen has considerable expertise in the areas of communication and counseling. Both are also gifted speakers. Their blog manifests a great concern, from an Adventist-Christian perspective, for issues in society and has a strong emphasis on living according to our Christian values.

Besides blogs, some newsletters and other digital messages enter my in-box automatically. I am, however, quite selective in what I want to accept, for there is no end to open and more hidden requests to be allowed to bombard me with all kinds of materials. But some thingds are very welcome. A few days ago I mentioned on my Facebook page that a good friend of mine (Rudy van Moere) has started a website with the title Bijbellezen met Rudy van Moere (Reading the Bible with Rudy van Moere). He worked for a considerable number of years as an Adventist pastor and departmental director in the Netherlands and Belgium, was a professor at Avondale College of Higher Education in Australia, and served as a professor in Old Testament for over a decade, until his recent retirement, at the Protestant Theological Faculty in Brussels. He remains extremely active as a guest lecturer and with church-related activities. He is now busy putting much of the fascinating material that he has developed on-line, after adapting it to a larger public (without compromising its depth). Anyone can subscribe to the regular instalments. It means that you get an e-mail each time a new document is added to the website. So far, the site is only in Dutch, but Google Translate will help those who are truly interested to get acquainted with this marvelous resource of knowledge, information and inspiration. The address is: www.bijbellezenmetvanmoere.nl.

Since a few months I read a daily meditation by Henri Nouwen (1932-1996), a Catholic priest of Dutch origin. He became a prominent professor at the American Harvard University, lectured around the world and wrote quite a few books. But eventually he concluded that this kind of life did not satisfy his soul. In 1986 he joined the L’Arche Daybreak community near Toronto. There he gave, until his death in 1996, new meaning to his life as the pastor of the mentally handicapped and their caregivers who live in this community. A foundation cares for his spiritual heritage and ensures that a new meditation is put on-line on a daily basis. This is available in a number of languages: https://henrinouwen.org/1/ or https://www.nouwen.org/nl/rdfle.php.  I warmly recommend this as a good way to start the day!