Christian Web and New Media Awards 2009: best christian blog

It was a huge privilege to attend the awards ceremony in London last night and receive a Bloggie award for ‘best Christian blog’. Premier Christian Media’s hospitality was so generous and gracious and the evening was held in a spirit of warmth, gratitude and excitement. At the centre of this fabulous evening and spread right throughout those gathered in St. Stephen’s, Wallbrook, was a wonderful celebration of God in our midst. Our digital presence within the internet today is for me the latter-day equivalent of the high Celtic crosses and smaller cross stones of the 7th to 10th centuries in Britain and Ireland. In a pre-literate age these stood at the heart of landscape and community as truly visible reminders of the living Christian story at the heart of ordinary and everyday life. Our blogs and websites are doing the same today within the digital landscape.

Global connectedness within this digital community brings such great potential for the rapid spread of innovation, insight and wisdom. What a Christian blogger writes in, say, Alaska one day can and does have  an impact right around the world by the next. One does get the feeling that we  are collectively surfing on the leading edge of God’s Spirit. We truly live in exciting times.

As I said last night, my blog is about seeing God in all things, which is a distinctly Celtic Christian perspective. The God in whom we live and move and have our being is always reaching out to us to make meaning and catch our attention. As we contemplate the world around us with open hearts and receptive minds God is in touch.  God’s loving presence  encourages, challenges and inspires us to turn our attention to Jesus and to seek him in the lives of others.

 

The photograph of a small bee sucking up nectar illustrates my own approach to blogging. Because my blog is photo-based, I get many hits from the Google Images search engine. Like the colourful flower, my images attract traffic to the blog which I might not otherwise get. No doubt very many who land here flit away as quickly as this bee did from the flower. It seems that others land and stay a bit longer, and find something nourishing. What I hope is true is that all leave with a little bit of incidental gospel pollen clinging to them. Even one tiny grain of grace, love and hope gathered here by chance in something seen or read might be a God-given gift to someone who needs it.

My sincere thanks go to the incomparable Rob Miles for suggesting that I take up blogging and for giving me great advice as to how to get started.  To Geoff Dowling ARPS, photographer in the Geography Dept at Birmingham University when I was a post-grad, who taught me to see creatively through the viewfinder of a camera. To the amazing and wonderful people called Methodist who teach me to see with eyes full of grace. And to Sue, Bekki and Judi who continue to teach me about the reality of true love.