I have decided to mark the new academic year (an important time for many of my readers although not for myself) with a new title for this blog: Gentle Wisdom. For the moment I am leaving everything else unchanged, although maybe I ought to look for a gentler picture than the mountain.
I don’t intend this to herald any major changes to this blog. But I intend to steer away from controversies like the atonement one and focus more on what is positive and beneficial, perhaps moving in a more devotional direction.
I am not changing the blog’s URL, so existing links will still work. However, if you have blogrolled me, please change the blog name in your link.
Why did I make this change? Well, I was never completely happy with the name Speaker of Truth. I always felt that it came across as a little bit arrogant for me to claim in this way to speak God’s truth. I wrote
I chose to call this blog “Speaker of Truth” because I believe that God has called me to speak the truth about him to the whole world on the Internet.
I am holding on to this calling, but realising that to proclaim it so publicly is not really gentle wisdom.
The new title Gentle Wisdom in fact comes from a prophetic word, or perhaps a word of knowledge or wisdom, given to me at the Soul Survivor camp which I attended a couple of weeks ago (and which I write more about here). The person praying for me, who didn’t know me at all, spoke the words “gentle wisdom” and suggested that showing this was God’s calling for me. I accepted this as confirmation of how I already felt God was leading me, and I also realised that it would make a good blog title.
The difficulty for me now is how to live up to this new title. I know that I have not always been gentle and not always wise in what I have written on this blog in the past. But I know that wisdom is a gift of the Holy Spirit and gentleness is one of his fruits. And the wisdom I want to show is not the wisdom of this world which God has made foolish, but the wisdom of God even when it is foolishness to humankind (1 Corinthians 1:20-25). This “wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy” (James 3:17, NRSV). So I pray that God may give me through the Holy Spirit this divine wisdom and the ability to express it in gentleness.
If any of you my readers feel that I am not being gentle or not being wise in anything which I write here, please let me know, in comments or privately to peter AT qaya DOT org. I say this because I need to remain properly accountable.
Blogroll updated, and a quote for pondering:
Blogrolls updated, Peter, and I really like the new title. As you know, I’ve struggled with my own blog’s title and still am not fully convinced of where I’m at…
Keep me thinking and keep challenging me Peter, that’s all I ask. Many thanks.
Peter, Bloglines picked up the new (and great) name automagically, which means it is also automagically in my blogroll correctly – how cool is that?
Doug, ElShaddai and Eddie, thanks for the encouragement.
Dave, that is indeed cool! I need to do something similar with my blogroll.
Duly changed, Peter. And I agree – I like the new name a lot better.
What a beautiful re-introduction to your blog.
Gentle yes, but fearless, too, by way of the love which casts out all fear.
Wow! I love the name and know that the one seeking gentle wisdom will still be speaking the truth in love.
Great name. I read blogs like yours, which are often over my head. I like to learn and I like to hear how other people are thinking. I appreciate your responses, because you can cut through arguments to roots and principles which I would not otherwise see. But you do it in a way that does not leave me feeling (even vicariously, as you are usually not responding to me, but to other people) like I am a total idiot for not “getting it” or for thinking about things from a different perspective from yours. I think Gentle Wisdom is an accurate representation of why I’m drawn to your blog.
Thanks, Eclexia. That is a really good summary of what I am aiming to do here. I must start reading your blog more regularly.
Yes, John and David, I do intend to continue speaking the truth in love but without fear. But I hope to preserve gentleness as well.
I like the new name and since I also use Bloglines[1], it appeared automatically.
[1] I use Bloglines because it’s the only blog aggregator that I understand how to use!
Nice one, Peter. I look forward to the new style of posting. I do have to admit that the banter around the atonement debate was good though, but I do think these debates probably do more harm than good in the end?
Pingback: Post 1000: musings on a milestone - Gentle Wisdom