I am finding out that the big difference between magazine writing and blogging is the instant feedback. One could go for weeks, in the old days, before the message you floated in a bottle came back to you with curses or blessings — and by that time “the bitterness of death is past,” as Agag put it in 1 Samuel 15:32. That’s if you even thought to check the mailbag at all.

I was about to read the Bible first thing in the morning, as is my custom, taking with wooden literalness the command to “seek first the kingdom.” But sitting at the computer desk I was tempted to just peek at the blog comments first, which was easier somehow than rummaging for a Scripture passage.

After I had read thirteen of them, my heart smote me, like David’s did after ordering the census (2 Samuel 24:10). As far as I can discern, the king’s motive was to reassure himself about the strength of men behind him. In any case, he was punished.

Seek God only. Some things are better not known. Advice for blog writers: “Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. Your heart knows that many times you have yourself cursed others” (Ecclesiastes 7:21).