The Pakistani Spectator

Would you please tell us something about you and your site?

I am a bivocational graphic designer and church planter living in southeast Arkansas. I’ve started three different companies - two design-based and one a community news website called monticellolive.com. My site is focused around five things: faith, family, techonology, and fun.

Do you feel that you continue to grow in your writing the longer you write? Why is that important to you?

Absolutely. I love the discipline that blogging has brought to my writing. I’ve always journalled - as far back as junior high. However, blogging forces me to consider wirting not only what I enjoy, but what also might help or influence others. The more you do anything, the better you’ll become at it (at least that’s what they say). I can see a definite improvement in my writing skills over the past three years.

It’s important to grow in this discipline because it involves communication and influence. Writing is literally the ability to capture a person’s attention for long periods of time. If you can write in such a way as to engage someone’s emotions, mind and soul, you have achieved much. It’s humbling to consider that the way you express yourself through writing can alter a person’s direction and actually aid someone in significant, even eternal life directions.

I’m wondering what some of your memorable experiences are with blogging?

Making connections with people that I would never have met otherwise. Ranging from England to Turkey, from India to California, I’ve been able to establish friendships and insightful relationships with people across the world from behind my iMac and Macbook screens.

What do you do in order to keep up your communication with other bloggers?

Email, commenting on their blogs, and microblogging (i.e., Twitter). I use Bloglines and daily follow about 50 other blogs. It can be intimidating, but for the most part I skim. When I come across an entry that “hooks” me, I spend more time with it and will most likely leave a comment to encourage the author.

What do you think is the most exciting or most innovative use of technology in politics right now?

I am not sure that anyone has really grasped an effective use of technology in politics. Obama’s campaign perhaps made the best use of some faddish technology, but I doubt we’ll see things like that being used in the same way in four years. Mike Huckabee’s campaign did a wonderful job early on with Youtube videos - many of them humorous - to connect with younger demographics.

I think microblogs have a lot of promise for the future, but they can rapidly become overwhelming.

Do you think that these new technologies are effective in making people more responsive?

Inasmuch as people “feel” like the high tech is also high touch. No one likes being bombarded with facts all the time. It’s information abuse. The conscious just gets weary from it. Those who are able to connect technology with the soul, with the emotion and heart of people will produce more response over the long haul.

What do you think sets Your site apart from others?

I seek to be diligent about giving my readers a balance between several things - ranging from Christian faith and perspective to sharing life lessons learned personally. One day I may be blogging a book review while the next, I’m talking about a family pet that has died. You just never know. I think the overall randomness keeps people coming back. In addition, there is a real authenticity to what I’m trying to write. What you see is what you get. I’m not posing. I’m really that stupid…

If you could choose one characteristic you have that brought you success in life, what would it be?

Absolute confidence that there is a God who loves me.

What was the happiest and gloomiest moment of your life?

Happiest moment would probably be the day I transitioned from believing about God to believing in God. I was seven at the time, and since then, there have been many deeply joyful moments as my faith has been strengthened by God’s obvious activity and intervention. Gloomy moments… each of the least four times that we found out that my wife’s cancer was back.

If you could pick a travel destination, anywhere in the world, with no worries about how it’s paid for - what would your top 3 choices be?

European tour.

Israel.

Australia.

Russia.

Central Asia -Pakistan, India etc.

What is your favorite book and why?

Desiring God by John Piper. It opened my mind and heart to God being a supremely joyful God.

What’s the first thing you notice about a person (whether you know them or not)?

Their eyes. Not color or shape… but whether they are “alive” or not. You can tell so much about a person’s day, life and character by looking into their eyes.

Is there anyone from your past that once told you you couldn’t write?

No.

How bloggers can benefit from blogs financially?

Great question. There are hundreds that do so by putting advertising on their blogs or by seeking corporate sponsors. I’m not one of them, though I would love to be…

Is it true that who has a successful blog has an awful lot of time on their hands?

Not necessarily. There are many who blog regularly but carry an immense following simply because they were already well known. In real estate, the adage is “location, location, location.” In the blog world, it’s “content, content, consistency.”

What role can bloggers of the world play to make this world more friendlier and less hostile?

By inviting authentic dialogue and earnest consideration of ideas. No themes seem to polarize humanity more than religion and politics. However, each of these realms have such dynamic and stunning opportunities for life and societal transformation. It’s more than just the naive question, “Why can’t we all get along?” Rather, it’s the principle that “the truth is out there.” If we could resist temptations to lambast opposing opinions and seek rather to understand and relate our own with them, much personal and global growth would result.

Who are your top five favourite bloggers?

 

Not in any particular order…

Tim Challies

Ed Stetzer

Anything related to Apple

Mark Batterson

Is there one observation or column or post that has gotten the most powerful reaction from people?

Probably a piece I did a while back on folks who turn to medicine for depression and how it’s become an epidemic in America to dope rather than cope.

What is your perception about Pakistan and its people?

I love the country and its people. I see them as being very religious and at times close-minded to dialogue with other people of faith. I love the sense of family that is cultivated there.

Have you ever become stunned by the uniqueness of any blogger?

Not really.

What is the most striking difference between a developed country and a developing country?

Perhaps the sense of societal stability among its citizens. Whenever a people are able to go about their daily lives without worry over how the nation as a whole is doing. Countries that are stable enough to allow their citizens to pursue and enjoy life are developed. A developing country, in my perspective, is one that is working hard to achieve viability in many basic services to its citizens, earn trust and manage social changes.

What is the future of blogging?

I get the sense that folks will eventually follow only a few bloggers that they feel like they know personally. Life is just too big to sit in front of the computer. There is beauty, grandeur, children and food to enjoy and celebrate. There will be a time when statistics may tell us that 85-90% of folks have “tried blogging.” However, it comes back to content and consistency. In everyone’s social circle, they will have a few bloggers that they are aware of and follow.

You have also got a blogging life, how has it directly affected both your personal and professional life?

My blogging life blurs into my personal and professional life. The relationships that I keep through my blog are often those that I email or talk to on the phone. However, the more my readership has grown, I have noticed a definite trend in my writing - almost unconsciously - toward pieces that are generally helpful and attractive to folks rather than specific.

What are your future plans?

I would love to find a corporate sponsor or entity that I blog for regularly which would enable me to supplement or earn enough income to focus on writing better and writing more. The humbling thing about where I am right now is that everything I have written has been done so in “real time and real life.” I write when I can and because I love to do so.

Any Message you want to give to the readers of The Pakistani Spectator?

I’m deeply humbled to even be able to share these thoughts with you. If my blog could in some way encourage, inspire and increase joy, I would be very fulfilled. May our paths cross in open dialogue, mutual love, and faith seeking understanding some day.

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