YOURS IN CHRIST,

Leon NEwton

Yes, artists deserve to be paid, but that can’t be the primary reason for doing it. You do it, frankly, because you have to, because something within you is not right if you don’t. Madeleine L’Engle addresses this in Walking on Water, where she says something along the lines of (I’m paraphrasing here): “Writers don’t write to get published; they write to write.”

It couldn’t be any simpler than that. Sure, the money is nice, as are the comments, DIGGs, and other electronic pats on the back, but I’m learning that if God has put it on your heart to create something, the acceptable response is obedience.

good thoughts.

I agree. Read this verse today and wonder if it’s applicable to Christian blogging for profit:

“For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.” (2 Cor. 2:17)

Thoughts?

i think the “deserve” part hits home with me. for a while I thought this way. I no longer do (thankfully).

I’m freed from that and i’ve been far more happy to do what i do. *whew!

While I don’t think that all Bible-believing bloggers (I wrote that only because of the alliteration) need to offer their blogs for free (after all, it costs them time and money to buy a domain, host it, design the blog, and maintain it), I am learning more and more than your art and ministry is a gift to the world that you shouldn’t necessarily charge a premium for.

Most of us artists want to do what we love (i.e. create) and make a ton of money for it. We think we deserve it. But we don’t.

The fact is – our calling isn’t something that we have the right to charge for. Again, I don’t think that it’s necessarily bad to be compensated for your artwork (we all have to pay bills), I do think that we ought to be careful with the assumption that we DESERVE to make a buck. The hard reality, I’m finding, is that if you have a calling on your life, you HAVE to pursue it. You can’t choose to do something else. It’s something you can’t NOT do. You have to find a way to answer the calling and still pay your bills.

And maybe God will bless you, like he has others.

And then again, maybe not. Regardless, you’re not excused from pursuing your calling.

I see it as all arms of me. My books are me, my blogs are me, my speaking events are me. I get paid to do those things. God's gifted me as a communicator. I'll never exploit any of my platforms, but when there are organizations I align with who want to share their brand with my readers because it makes sense…why not?