Blog Traffic

According to my Lijit widget, I had a good week (at least by Out Of My Hat standards) of blog traffic. I attribute this to a couple of factors.


First of all, I posted several times last week. Yes, as strange as it may seem, people have a tendency to quit stopping by when they see that there is nothing new!


Second, I believe that I am getting some additional looks from Facebook friends. I changed my "status" when I posted on my blog and left a link. Thank-you Facebook friends for stopping by. Feel free to leave comments...here or on Facebook.


I have a few mutual friends from the blogging community and on Facebook. For those that are on Facebook--if you have a blog, please let me know. For readers, lurkers and fellow bloggers--if you are on Facebook, I'd like to know. I find that our different cultures and backgrounds are far less dividing than one might think. Among conservative Christians in the United States, there is a fear of a one world mentality. I know that it has to do with end time prophesies and they have doom and gloom as its outcome. For my own beliefs, doom and gloom are not the outcome of the end times. In fact, I find myself looking forward to the fulfillment of the Second Coming of Jesus--even to the point of praying for it.

But I digress.


I find that we are so much more alike than we are different. To be sure, our governments can be very different. Certainly we face different daily challenges. Opportunities and prosperity can be very different from one country to the next. Some have liberties that are greatly restricted and others treat their great liberties irresponsibly.


But still, we all love our families. We want the best for our children. We want to be a part of a community. We want to help others and we look for relationships that can be helpful to us and our loved ones. We would like to find a cure for the illnesses that ravage our part of the world and take the lives of our neighbors and friends. We would all like to live in a world where there is peace and harmony.


Though our spiritual beliefs are greatly different, I truly believe that we are created with an inner being--an inner voice, a spirit--that drives us toward one Supreme Being. Each culture has endeavored to find God. There is no doubt that we have many different concepts of God and indeed, some cultures have many different gods--but to say that there is no God strikes me as either arrogance or foolishness. The complications of nature are enough to satisfy most intellectuals of an Intelligent Designer.

We can focus on our differences and expand the gap between cultures, or we can find the areas that we agree on and build bridges. We can keep our conversations and writings to trivial matters of daily living or we can address the more complex issues of what happens when our daily lives are no more. Perhaps, we can each look for somebody with whom we can share something of value...something more important the the Cardinals being ahead of the Cubs, or if the Republicans or the Democrats can leads us out the economic crisis or the great restaurant that we found. Maybe we can share our own ideas of who God is or how much He loves us. Maybe we can share an act of kindness. Maybe we can pull a brick off the wall that separates us and begin to build a bridge to bring us together.

I believe that long after contract disputes are settled; long after wars have ended; long after we have ceased to live as physical beings confined to earthly bodies--there will still exist a God in heaven that has called for us to join His great feast. If you plan on attending, you have to RSVP through His Son, Jesus...at least that's what I believe.