05/09/2019

The archive contains older posts which may no longer reflect my current views.

A post

I was typing the words "a post" on my phone and missed the space so predictive text, understandably, suggested "apostle" as what I might have been going for.

To keep to a religious theme (and not wishing to appear blasphemous with any of this) I had an epiphany of sorts. I instantly thought there should be a connection between the two but, in order to find it, needed to clarify what an apostle was.

The obvious answer is "the original 12 chosen by Christ" but others who came after were also referred to as apostles, so what does it actually mean?

The word itself means "one who is sent out" and they were chosen to be messengers, to spread the Word. In today's religious parlance the closest thing would be missionary or, perhaps, evangelist.

Now, evangelist is used in a much wider sense meaning someone who is an enthusiastic advocate of something, someone who is imparting a message with a view to changing the attitude or behaviour of others.

Many bloggers call or consider themselves evangelists in the modern sense but, maybe, we need to reconnect with the more traditional meaning. Not necessarily in a religious way but certainly in a more personally spiritual one.

I then thought about what a post is or, rather, what it could or should be and came to the conclusion that it ought be a message and those writing them should be more akin to missionaries. That's not to say every post but the position is worthy of consideration.

I've written before about wanting what I do to mean something, and I'm not entirely sure I've managed to explain all this as effectively as I'd like, but I think that should be the aim with blogging.

A message doesn't have to be long but it should have meaning and be passed on with passion. Too many words are wasted on the internet, shared just for the sake of sharing when they should be "sent out" with a purpose.

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