bondChristian

Photo by Brigitte Lacombe

Johnny Depp taught me that serving others is about serving others. Let me explain…

A week and a half ago, I wrote a short post on my personal blog about Johnny Depp and what he means to me. I felt pretty giddy when I wrote the post – you know, like a school girl. It was more for fun than anything else. I mean, since when do I write about Johnny Depp?

Now I do.

Yesterday, I checked my traffic stats on that blog for the first time in about a week. Surprise! In one day, 545 visitors had dropped by. That might not sound like much, especially by Internet standards, but for that blog, it is.

I haven’t tried to promote that blog at all except posting links to my facebook account (and one blog carnival where my post happened to fit the topic). As a result, only about 30 or 40 readers visit each day. I’m thankful for these readers – they’re a loyal bunch (I’m not sure I want many more reading that blog).

All that to say, 545 visitors in one day is about a 1,300% increase. To put that into perspective, it’s like you increasing from three meals a day to 39 a day. Okay, maybe it’s not quite like that, but it’s big.

All that to say, people care about Johnny Depp. If they’re willing to search all the way to my puny blog to read about him, they care. And I should care about that. But I didn’t.

Now I do.

See, serving others isn’t about serving what I want to serve. It’s about serving what’s wanted and needed. I didn’t write about Johnny Depp before because I don’t care about Johnny Depp. I mean, of course I care in a loving, Christian way – but I don’t care in a “celebrity juice – not from concentrate” sort of way.

But it doesn’t matter what I care about

Really, honestly, truly – it doesn’t matter. That’s harsh. I want what I care about to matter. I suppose you do too.

The sooner we can ditch that perspective, the sooner we can live from an others-oriented perspective.

So is bondChristian.com going to switch from a practical guide for serving others to a practical guide to Johnny Depp?

No, not to worry (not that you were) – I’m sticking with serving others here. But I’m really going to serve others here, not just write about it. I’m going to write what you want and what you need, not what I want to write about.

Here’s to both of us genuinely serving others, wherever that may lead… except, God, please let this be my last Johnny Depp post.

Serving Suggestions:

(1) Start serving others for others. If they’re interested in Johnny Depp, maybe that’s where your conversation should start… even if it’s the last place you want to start.

(2) I’d appreciate it if you would give me some suggestions for what to write. How can I better serve you? Would you like more practical articles like the one about writing Thank You notes? More conceptual articles like the one about character development? So many questions I could ask here, but I’d rather you just tell what you’d like. So please do.