I find that this is a realization that I come across far too often. Most recently, I noticed this with my blog. As you may have noticed, I've been a fairly prolific writer during this past month. I've written pretty much every post in this blog in the month of January, and there's a decent number of posts (although the quality of said posts can be argued). I've been pushing this blog pretty hard, sharing each post on different social networking sites (Twitter, Facebook, and Google+). I've also been trying to adapt my blog as a whole, to make it more appealing. I've changed the background, added floating share buttons, played with pages and tabs, and numerous other tweaks and changes that most people won't even notice.
Overall, I'd say that my changes were a good thing. I mean, there's nothing wrong with trying to make my blog look better or with trying to make my blog more attractive to the public. If people aren't reading it, then what's the difference between a blog and a diary (or journal for the more masculine of us). However, what I realized was that in my efforts to make my blog appealing, I was neglecting the reason people would come to my blog: my writings. If you were to go back and look at the dates of my posts, you'll see that there was a week in the middle of January between posts. And, looking at the last couple of posts, there was another 4 day gap between two of my latest posts. It's not for shortage of ideas, because I seem to have a few ideas in queue at any given moment. It was Voltaire's proverb playing out in my life. In trying to make my blog look better, trying to make it more appealing, trying to make it the best that I could, I was being counterproductive. I wasn't thinking about and developing ideas, writing them down, or sharing them. Instead I was removing the Blogger bar or "the status message bar" which most of you won't even notice.
I have noticed several consolations in this experience: 1) I picked up on this habit pretty quickly, so I can pick up with my blog and most people won't notice what happened, 2) I've learned a lesson and am now able to keep my eyes open to this tendency of mine in the future, and 3) it's just a blog! There are far more important things in my life than making sure I kick out a few posts each week. Yet, in the midst of these consolations, I'm still uneasy. Although my blog may not be terribly important, I see this tendency in other areas of my life. Most poignantly, I notice this in my faith.
"...as I try to grow to be a better Christian and live the way that would please God, I lose track of myself."
What I've noticed is that sometimes, as I try to grow to be a better Christian and live the way that would please God, I lose track of myself. For example, maybe I've decided that reading my Bible each day would help me to live a more godly life and would please God. So I begin reading my Bible each morning right after I wake up. But soon, I find that I'm not enjoying my time in the Bible. Yet I keep reading it "because I'm supposed to". Can you relate?
I'm not saying that the best thing for me to do is just stop reading the Bible. That would be removing the symptom and not the remedy, cutting off the fruit but leaving the tree. No, what I'm saying is that at that moment when I find that the Bible doesn't bring me joy, I need to stop and recenter. Ideally, I'll be recentering every day, but ideals rarely happen. So from time to time, I have to recenter and go over the fundamentals of what I believe and why. The more I am faced with how much of a sinner I am and how inadequate my attempts at working my way to heaven are, the more I recognize how thankful I am that Jesus died for me. He did the work that I can't.
Your Turn
Where do you see "the best is the enemy of the good" in your life? If you're a Christian, what do you do to "recenter" when you find you're off track?
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