Watch for (enjoyable) unintended consequences

God has surprises in store when you obey him. Be ready for them.

Ruth and Boaz in the field. Photo credit: Harris Museum, Art Gallery and Library.

Then Naomi said, “Wait, my daughter, until you find out what happens. For the man will not rest until the matter is settled today.” —Ruth 3:18

The Old Testament book of Ruth is a wonderful story of unintended consequences. Ruth followed Naomi back to Israel out of deep, sacrificial love for a mother-in-law and her God. She didn’t expect to be blessed with a first-rate husband too. The consequences were enormous: not only did Ruth become an ancestor of David, but we are still reading about her faithfulness today.

I wish to encourage you, like Ruth, to do the right thing even when it’s costly and to trust God to provide pleasant surprises. Toward that end, today I offer a message of gratitude about my first three months of producing “gently provocative thoughts.” If you don’t care about my personal experiences, you may skip this one.

I started a blog because I thought God wanted me to. Some of the results are what I expected. Most are unintended consequences.

The encouragement I’ve received from friends at the World Evangelical Alliance, World Council of Churches, and Evangelical Focus has been deeply appreciated, but not unexpected. On the other hand, four major sources of support were unanticipated.

Canada: I did not expect to gain so many Canadian friends. This is largely because I have publicly taken Canada’s side in its unwanted trade war with the US. But it couldn’t have happened without treasured support from Brian Stiller, one of the most valuable communicators in the evangelical community, who arranged my interview with Canadian member of parliament John McKay and has shared my posts with his friends. (And Brian has about 10 times as many friends as I do.)

India: My Indian readership has grown unexpectedly, thanks to recommendations from Vijayesh Lal at the Evangelical Fellowship of India (whom I know primarily through his wife, superb Christianity Today writer Surinder Kaur) and visionary evangelical leader Richard Howell.

Asian leaders: Joe Handley of A3, who was wonderfully supportive when I was editing the WEA’s theology journal, has continued to be a great encouragement, connecting me to insightful leaders across Asia.

Women: WEA Women’s Commission leaders Seble Daniel and Amanda Jackson have been recommending this blog even before I got around to writing about Amanda.

I like to serve my most appreciative readers well, so I welcome topic suggestions or guest contributions in those areas or any others.

Increased popularity can bring extra work. When I was a congressional aide, I built lots of relationships with appreciative constituents—and people needing help kept calling me at home for months after I left that job. This time around, becoming more widely known through a blog has generated new requests for free editing. Since I have enough money, it’s been a privilege to assist many great Christian leaders in this way.

I definitely wasn’t planning to make Donald Trump a frequent blog topic, but I hope that my longtime track record of cautioning about alignment with Trump will enable me to contribute to the rebuilding of Christians’ (especially evangelicals’) reputation in the post-Trump era, whenever it arrives.

I must admit (in a lighthearted manner) that I still struggle with a bruised ego. I’ve felt overlooked for years because my father and my son both have Wikipedia biographies but I don’t. Now that I have a blog, I’m constantly reminded that American historian Heather Cox Richardson has 2 million Substack subscribers and I have 500. In view of my limited promotional capacity, reaching 500 subscribers in three months isn’t bad, especially since many of them are global Christian leaders and journalists. But if you think I’m fulfilling my promise to provide interesting, useful posts in a gently provocative manner, I would love it if you could encourage a few friends to subscribe.