This is my 700th blog post.

They have ranged from the simple question to pop culture to the downright controversial, but what I am most proud of in terms of my blogging has been its continuity.  Since October 2007, I have created, written, constructed, taught, and shared parts of my life on a fairly regular basis for anyone to see.

It’s not often that we persevere, is it?

The music lessons that got boring or the diet that made the refrigerator seem like a cast member of “The Hills” eventually faded away for other interests, endeavors, or pleasures.  I’m learning this in my life right now.  There are things that I like to do that are a lot easier than the things I’ve committed to do.  So when I suffer writer’s block or have hunger pains or get tempted by all the other things I could be doing, I give in and the commitment goes awry.

Recently I’ve committed to running a marathon in October.  I believe I’m crazy, but I didn’t commit half-heartedly.  I was all in, not knowing whether or not I could actually do it or not.  I had never run more than 4 miles, and even then, let’s just say stopping was on that run schedule.  But a while into it, I’m still going, and each running day, my body, schedule, and other forms of entertainment beg me to change my mind.  I don’t expect that begging to stop.  Anything worth having is worth working for.

In terms of writing, more recently I’ve found many excuses to not write, but mostly, it’s just been fear.  Fear that I have nothing important to say or fear that it won’t come out of my mind onto the computer screen clearly.  So I don’t even click on my site.  I find other things to do.  Then a friend of mine gets on my case and tells me he’s been affected by my writing in a good way, and he is an incredible reminder that when we make commitments with the right intentions, there’s a good reason.  And quitting doesn’t simply make those intentions go away, quitting hurts those intentions.

So I ask you, what have you committed to do that currently that you’re questioning the validity of, not because it’s probably a good idea to quit, but because your external circumstances are begging you to do things that are more fun or taste better or are just easier on you?  or perhaps the better questions is…

What do you need to keep doing that you desperately want to stop?

Words are an interesting thing, especially the written down kind.

Which is why I love a good conversation via blog.  Several people chiming in about what they think about a topic is pretty much healthy, save for “that guy” who seems to have a way of pissing everyone off by having no tact, class, or manners.  But sometimes even when everyone displays the politeness of Queen Elizabeth II, if they have the wit of Sir Winston Churchill, there’s going to be problems when it comes to the written word.  Something that was meant to be sarcastic comes across as jarring.  A word meant to be complimentary arrives to the reader’s eyes as a slap in the face, and all is not well in communicationville.

To insure tranquility while reading and commenting or instant messaging or Facebook chatting or whatever other modes of communication might be out there, specifically in matters of debate meant for a topical discourse, one must not right or read personally into their transcripts.  That is, before you attack or read “attack” (into personal matters opposed to topical matters) into what you’ve written or read – stop and think.  Keep the topic about the topic.

Then be aware that the person has the right to feel the way they do.  They don’t have the right necessarily to say what they want whenever they want, but they do have a right to feel a certain way.  Understanding why they feel that way is the key to a successful outcome in terms of conversation.  By the way, a successful outcome doesn’t always mean both parties agree, but can also mean they both don’t hate each other.

At times there are those who respond to this blog, and each time they respond they vehemently disagree with everything I say.  This is not always bad, but I can tell that they really don’t respect me as a person and writer.  They simply desire to antagonize.  I don’t mind disagreement, but I do mind disrespect.  One of the big reasons the internet works so well is its allowance for massive diversity of opinion, but respect for other individuals is an important reason why this flow of information will continue to flourish.

I suppose until I can no longer type I will be blogging and thinking and writing down, of which the response will be both good and bad, agreement and not so much, but I hope that in my circles of influence the two way or three way communications that take place can both be productive and tranquil.

And if you don’t like that you can…

As you can see,  in the last 24 hours I’ve made some significant changes on my site, and I hope you’re able to enjoy the changes.  They are meant to highlight the thing on this earth I am most passionate about:  relationships.  The following are some of the things on martyholman.com that you can now experience.

1.  Subscribe via a blog reader or email.  You can subscribe both to my posts and to the comments that are written here by my uber cool readership.

2.  Top Commentators:  From now on, you will be able to see the top ten commentators giving responses to my posts.  This is my favorite addition.

3.  My blogroll – This of course is normal, and if you would like to be added and aren’t spouting off a nazi agenda, let me know.

4.  U Speak – You can check out who the last 4 comments on my blog posts come from.

5.  Messages – I’m a pastor, so I thought you might like to subscribe to my weekly messages given at Fellowship Church in Holden, Massachusetts.

6.  Alltop stuff – I have some great widgets from Alltop sharing some of the more popular blog posts on my three favorite topics – Relationships, leadership, and church.

7.  Shelfari – A widget of some of the books I’m reading and have read.

8.  Posts – And of course regular posts on the topic of relationships.

I’d love to know if there’s anything you’d like to see on the site.

My friend Mike Burns had something to say, and he wondered if martyholman.com was the place he could share his thoughts on the subject.  Since Burns is too busy making things happen to blog, I figured this would be a great forum for his concerns.  So, meet Mike Burns:

“Am I the only one that gets screwed by airline companies?
It seems every time I book a flight, I pay on average 30% more than anyone else
I ever talk to.  Everyone tells me about really cheap flights, but they never
seem to fly to or from cities I need.  So I try to book a normalish flight, and
end up paying through the nose, only to find out that had I waited two weeks or
something, I could have saved 30-50%.  Case in point:

My sister planned to get married in November of 2009, and told me in December of
2008, so I thought I’d get a really good deal by booking right away.  So I paid
€560.  Not bad considering the last flight I booked to the US for €750.  My
friend recently visited from Boston and flew to Frankfurt, essentially the same
flight path I take, and paid US$400.  So I looked into these new prices, and
found that after 6 months, my flight was now down to €360.  So I instantly
tried to cancel and re-book.  But then I found out about the €150 cancellation
fee, which means in the end, I only save €50 on what looks like a €200 savings.
On top of that, it takes up to 6 weeks to get the money back, and in the
meantime, I need to re-book the flight.  So I have to wait till the end of the
month to re-book when I get a new credit limit (Germany’s credit card system is
strange, to say the least.  You get a credit each month, but at the end of each
month, whatever you paid with the credit card is taken from your bank account
automatically.)

I hate the airlines.  If a ship didn’t take 2 weeks to get across the pond, I’d
totally be doing that.”

Edited with love by Marty Holman

My technology (and consequently, my blog) has gone Mac.  Thanks to all of you who had a hand in this from Fellowship Church and other friends.

The question is:

Will I ever go back?

Here is where you connect with yours truly on all my social networking sites.  I’d love to hang out, subscribe, tokbox, video chat, email, or have you stalk me.  Okay, probably not the latter, but everything else!

Facebook
Twitter
Subscribe to this blog
Subscribe to the Connect with FC podcast
Church website where I pastor
Youtube
Tokbox
Vimeo

I can’t tell you how many people have found my blog in the last week because of the troubles going on at Landmark Church in Cincinnati.  Actually, I can tell you…

23 people alone on Friday and Saturday (as of 1:30 pm) have seen my blog because they’ve been looking for gossip or bashing material on Matt, my uncle, or Lonnie, my mentor.

Sorry chaps, you won’t find any of that here.  But you can find that here. So please go look for gossip and backbiting elsewhere.

Thank you and good night.

Last week we had a fascinating discussion that led to a few rabbit trails and intense debating via the comment section of Martyholman.com.  After I posted the blog in question, the guest blogger and I had a great and equally fervent conversation via instant messenger about the topic and worked some things out that needed to be cleared up.

One of the things our guest blogger was a bit annoyed about was the amount of people who took my side of the debate.  This didn’t surprise him however, nor did it surprise me.

You see, people side with who they connect with and are influenced by the most.  If someone pours into their life, and they connect with them, then why should anyone listen to the guy or gal who has done nothing for them, even to the point of ignoring good advice.

About a year ago, my friend Jeff responded to a hilarious blog post by Stuff Christians like.  The author had written a piece that made everyone laugh connecting some of the famous pastors of our day and age with super hero characters.  One of those connections was linking TD Jakes with the Incredible Hulk.

Jeff responded with a light and loving rebuke of this hilarity by finding it interesting that the author would use the only African American pastor in the bunch with the only not white super hero mentioned.  Jeff made it clear that he was not calling the author a racist, but simply said he found it interesting.

You would have thought Jeff was the antichrist as tons of people responded to jeffs thoughts with harsh rebuke after harsh rebuke, including the author himself.

A few things were at work here:  Stuff Christians like has a point, and its rarely to be serious.  It is always a funny blog, and I would encourage you to check it out.  Jeff decided to “hijack” the blog with a comment changing the original purpose of the said post, and the people who read the blog didn’t like that very much.  If you know Jeff, you know he’s a great guy, but not even he could change the purpose of this blog.

Also, this was (if not the first), one of the first times Jeff had commented on this blog, so no one who reads this blog (relatively speaking) has a relationship with Jeff or knows what a great guy he is.

This was the case with last week’s “Hate makes waste”.  The guest blogger changed the whole point of my blog, inferring that it was all about me propogating my philosophy (as if  this is not the case with every blog) rather than it being about conversation.  Now, beautifully and ironically, a lot of conversation came from his thoughts.

Then, many of the people he was addressing through my blog didn’t have a clue who he was, and the ones that did, with only a few exceptions, didn’t consider him any kind of expert in being able to critique me.  (which, by the way, is accurate – he is not)

In the end, the only good thing that came out of it from my end is the conversation we were able to have apart from the blog, and the amount of people who understand what it is my blog is attempting to accomplish.  It is not for the purpose of propogating philosophy, though I wonder if it is possible to write without your influence leaking out of your work?  Even our guest bloggers writings and chatter “shrugged of Atlas” – a philosophy bent on propogating the value of rational selfishness.

I say all this to reiterate the purpose of my blog – to create conversation for the purpose of growing – preferably in love.  And to ask you whose thoughts you are trying to propogate as you comment on my blog?

Basically, who is influencing you right now?

I’ve placed some new blogs up on my blogroll to your right.  Here are 4 blogs you might want to read (or not):

1.  Clay Davis – I’ve hesitated to put his site on my blogroll because of its name is so overtly political, and then I realized that my best friend for much of my life is no different than all my Obama loving friends I have on this blogroll, except, well…overt.

2.  David Lee – Some interesting and emotional thoughts by this man who’s impacted my life more than he knows.  You’ll find his musings fascinating…as well as many of his stories.

3.  Coach Bogey – This guys plays basketball with me in a 30 and over league (I’m petitioning to not allow him to cross to thext division quite yet).  He’s been a coach for years at our local high school and though he’s just started to blog, I already love his stuff, and his insights into my own life.

4.  Ed Rodriguez Jr. – This guy is the real deal.  He was a fellow NBT evangelist and floorleader at PCC in 1996-1997, and has been an amazing friend ever since!  You’re going to love his Biblical outlook on life, and his authenticity in the process.

p.s.  I’m listening to a sweet song by Bleach called “heartbeat” and I might put it on repeat.

I’m going to try something new today. I’d like to join me today for the Fellowship 15! If you like music, you’ll like it. If you find this post by 4:15 pm today (3/31/09), check out the link here.