Recently I noticed the number of times a day I was checking The Rest Stop website and You Tube analytics. How many people visited the site, liked or subscribed on You Tube and Instagram? Were the metrics trending up or down? I thought maybe I should do some ad boosts or create a promotion campaign to increase traffic. So called content creators were registering thousands and often millions of views and subscribers for some of the most pointless and mindless posts. After all I was writing and posting what I believe is valuable and beneficial content, not some of the dribble that I see out there. Shouldn’t I promote my posts and let others know about it? I concluded I was checking the metrics way too often.

One of the things I had asked the Lord for was to take my four-year journey toward rest and life balance and allow me to influence and encourage those 20 to 30 years younger than me to not wait until they were 65 before understanding and implementing what I was finally beginning to enjoy and experience.  That was my reason and motive for starting my weekly blogs in the first place. My motive was right, but my method and focus had gotten off kilter.

I had some soul searching to do and asked myself the question, “Do I want to draw a crowd or influence others as the opportunity presented itself?” “Am I ok and content being a guide on the side, or do I long to be the sage on the stage?”  After an honest gut check, I realized I had gotten caught up in the numbers and results instead of simply staying true to the cause and leaving the results to the Lord.

Having given this further thought, I’ve decided that I will not market or promote The Rest Stop through ads, boosts, or marketing campaigns, but will instead leave any growth in readers, listeners, or viewers to Him. Deciding in this direction will go completely against the gurus on various social media platforms who have all kinds of slick methods and three easy steps for increasing subscribers so that you can monetize your site.

As I grappled internally with my motives and mindset it reminded me of the passage in Genesis 11:4 “And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves.”  Also, I was reminded of when Paul in Galatians says, “For do I now persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ. That got my attention! How about you? Are you ok being a guide on the side or do you long to be the sage on the stage.

I will continue to write and post blogs, audio episodes, and videos each week encouraging others to evaluate their own lives and share from my journey the lessons I have learned toward achieving greater rest and life-balance. But who reads, listens, watches, shares, or subscribes, that’s not my call or my responsibility. My desire is to remain faithful to what He has called me to do, and rather than making a name for myself, instead make much of His Name.

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