Posted on by Amanda Joy Beguerie

Living To Be Freshly Pressed (Or Not)

Writing

Blogging (and all writing, for that matter) is absolutely amazing.

I love it so much.

I can press my fingertips to the keys on my keyboard, and almost magically, words come out.

It’s my joy to sit up until midnight (or 1am or 2am) and just express myself with written words that I could never formulate in speech.

I love to write about what God is doing in my life. What I’m learning. Who I am. And who I want to be. It’s a passion and a privilege of mine to be able to use my little fingertips for the glory of God.

No matter what others tell me, I’m going to keep on journaling and typing, because that is what I love to do, and it is one of my ways that I worship God.

However, there is a very interesting feature on WordPress called “Freshly Pressed”. Basically, WordPress employees find ten well-written and interestingly-expressed blog posts (that have a unique point of view and are attractive) every day from around the WordPress blogosphere and promote them on the WordPress Freshly Pressed page. To many bloggers, this is an AMAZING goal.

I mean, who wouldn’t want five million views on their blog and potentially millions of followers because one post went viral?

Tell me, who doesn’t want to be popular?

This presents a slight problem. See, I can almost assure you that people have blogs dedicated to “trying to make their posts go viral”. If you know anything about modern media, well, you’ll know that it doesn’t happen that way. You can’t produce viral content purposefully, but I suppose that people don’t really understand that.

At the same time, I think we forget this point that should be so obvious to us in life.

So many people live their lives for show. They live to be cool and popular. (Sounds to me like another way of saying ‘viral’ and ‘Freshly Pressed’.) But really, does that make a lot of sense?

Let me put it back in blogging and writing terms.

Every Monday and Friday night, I stay up late doing what I love. I eat chocolate (shh, don’t tell Mom and Dad…just kidding) and listen to instrumental music (good for the brain) and wear away my laptop keys in the beautiful silence.

And not only do I love doing it, but I write for one main reason: I do it because I love the One who saved my soul, and my life is dedicated to Him.

I don’t write to make my post popular, though high stats days are definitely nice. But see, if I were to write for being Freshly Pressed only, well, I think that would alter my content.

Hypothetically, I wouldn’t express my faith so openly.

I’d probably side with the secular world when it came to issues like marriage and politics, relationships and worldviews.

I would probably use explicit language to “blend in” with everyone else.

And honestly, to me, that sounds miserable.

I will either write to please God, or I will write to please the world.

Do I really want to write words that pacify a bunch of little mortals, or do I want to please the Almighty God of the Universe and hear Him say “Well Done”?

I’m going with the latter.

And I believe life is the same way.

As a Christian, do I want to hide my faith, act like everyone else, hold the views of the secular world (that the Bible is clearly against) use inappropriate language, and ditch the Bible for temporary popularity?

UM, NO WAY. Never in a million years.

I have made my choice that I do not need the approval of the world to live my life. I already have the approval of the Creator of EVERYTHING EVER, so what more do I need?

Am I going to live to be Freshly Pressed, or live to please my Lord and my God?

Am I going to change my lifestyle to be popular according to the world’s standards, or live to serve my Maker and Sustainer?

I choose to live in freedom. I am free from the mold that the world has set upon me to be popular and cool, and I am going to live for God.

And if no one else does? Well, I still will.

*aj

24 Replies to “Living To Be Freshly Pressed (Or Not)”

  2. Great post! Sometimes we worry too much about awards or others’ opinions, and we just need to focus on doing what honors God. And hey, if we do that, who knows where we might go?

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  3. Exactly. God should come first in everything. And writing really is a form of ministry, so we ought to be using it as such. While it might be neat to be noticed and popular, that’s not what it’s all about. It’s hard to think that way, especially in a politically correct world where you’re not allowed to offend anyone (unless said person is a Christian, then offend away), but we have to speak the truth and let people know about it, because if we don’t, who will?

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    1. Yeah, my points exactly. 😉 Whether I’m great at writing or not, for the present moment, this is my mission field, and I’m going to use it to serve God! And yes, it can get discouraging when you don’t feel like you’re being noticed…but that’s not the point. We do the work, and God will get it to the people that need to read it. We will have to go against the world, but it’s worth it to live for God and please Him. In the end, that’s all that matters!

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      3. As I kind of reiterated your post in a condensed form. And just reiterated what you just said. And I should probably stop before I reiterate everybody crazy. 🙂

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  4. As another blogger, this is so thought-provoking. I constantly have to remind myself that if my blog brings one person to Christ, encourages one person who is falling away from faith, or helps one person to grow more in their walk with God, it will have achieved its purpose. While I am obviously excited when I get tons of pageviews or whatever, I have to remember that that is not the goal.
    We are all so susceptible to desires to be popular; we want to be in the in-crowd, to be the one that everyone admires. And that is not what life is about.
    Thanks for this post!

    -Grace (meyougod.blogspot.com)

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  6. You write so beautifully it is hard not to feel moved closer to God. It may feel small now but I think it will find its audience and continue to grow.

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  7. Hey great job Amanda! I find it hard to write blog posts, I don’t stay up as late as you doing it! Sometimes the words will flow like river but sometimes I can just sit there and just look at it, my brain goes blank! Have you got any tips for a blogger like me? Thanks Nathan.

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    1. Haha! I know exactly what you mean. That happens to me too. Sometimes it’s helpful to make an outline on paper of a few points you want to make, and then when you type it out, elaborate on them. Another thing is just practice. Sometimes, I have no idea what to write about for the next day, and it’s already midnight. Definitely start out by praying, and then just find something at all to write about. Pick a topic that you’re comfortable with, or a passage of scripture, and explain it, make a few points about it, or share a personal story or life lesson about it. The more you write, the easier it will become. Instead of thinking that the words will magically appear once you pick a topic (they won’t; I’ve tried), know what you want to say in your head first, and go from there. And above all else, let God do the writing through you! Hope this helps!

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  8. Amanda, you have such a gift. Your writing is beautiful. Also, the courage that you express when you write is amazing. When I write sometimes, I would be infinitely scared of someone seeing it. But thank you for blessing all of us with your gift from God.
    Also, staying up late by yourself and writing sounds really fun! 🙂

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    1. Thank you so much for such an encouraging comment, Kara! Wow. I don’t always have courage…especially with my writing. But when I remember that God can work through me, well, it’s exciting! His strength, my fingertips. 🙂 And staying up late to write is awesome. I look forward to it each week! Thank you for visiting my blog!

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