Works in Progress

I haven't posted to this blog in quite some time. I haven't given up but, for a variety of reasons, I have been struggling to produce posts which are 'finished' - I have ideas, and thoughts, which seem inspired, but which, once I start to write, seem to lead nowhere - either that or my brain descends into a fog and I can't seem to find my way to the conclusion.

I think I have decided that I am going to write anyway, and let my readers draw their own conclusions, or 'fill in the blanks' by commenting. Having said that though, I do reserve the right to edit or delete any comments which I don't like (with or without giving a justification for my changes) - this is my little corner of the internet, after all, and it should, largely, reflect what I want it to!

Why carry on when I have nothing (finished) to say? Well, partly because I think the beginnings of the thoughts are interesting in themselves (you are free to disagree); some of them are questions with no easy answers; some are simply 'works in progress' where I have very little idea what my final conclusion might be, if I ever reach it. But it's all stuff that I need to 'clear out of my mind', and set down 'in print', so that I can, I hope, think more clearly.

I am inspired to take this approach by a dear friend, who has, incredibly bravely, begun a blog whilst in the midst of illness. She suffers from chronic migraine - the trigger for which appears to be, of all things, migraine itself; that means that attacks run one into another, almost continuously (for instance in September she had six 'good', migraine-free, hours). For those who don't know, migraine is so much more than a bad headache. I used to suffer myself (though to nothing like the extent that she does) - this is partly why we're close - as well as sharing a faith in Jesus Christ as saviour and Lord, I have experienced some of what she's going through and can empathise. As I say, I used to get migraines myself, and my mother is a chronic migraine sufferer (hardly a day goes by without her having one). Migraine takes over your life when you suffer from it, affects every aspect of life quite profoundly, and is incredibly debilitating.

Her blog is the story of how she is fighting it, rather than giving in, and her thoughts and feelings about God, healing, and everything else…  Because she's in the middle of the suffering, her blog is entirely an unfinished 'work in progress' - the 'war diary' of her fight if you like. It's well written (she's a very clever lady) and incredibly moving - it can be found here. In a recent email to me, whilst we were discussing me 'restarting' this blog, she said this:

"Something I've been thinking about recently is how we often present 'finished products', like when people give testimonies in church it's usually at the end of a journey or experience. Maybe we should be sharing more of the en route bits, though that's more scary."

So, I think I shall follow her lead in posting 'unfinished business' - if she can do it, so can I!

Copyright © Phil Hendry, 2022