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Paul.
Recently, something rather extraordinary happened. Sacred & Secular received its bestseller badge on Substack, recognising a milestone I had been working towards for some time. You may know this already, because I posted about it to just about everybody! I was so delighted. When I started writing these reflections, I had no idea whether anybody would want to read them, let alone pay to support them. Reaching that point felt like a genuine achievement, and I am enormously grateful to everyone who has helped make it possible.
Then, almost before I had finished celebrating, I started thinking about what came next. How many subscribers should I aim for now? Could I maintain the momentum? Was I doing enough? Before long, I was putting myself under much more pressure, second-guessing my writing and deleting drafts I would probably have published happily a few weeks earlier.
It took me a few days to realise what was happening. All of a sudden, something I loved doing was becoming another thing to worry about. I had begun writing because I enjoyed exploring Scripture and sharing what I discovered. Now, I was becoming preoccupied with whether I was succeeding at it.
That experience came back to me while reading Mark’s Gospel. Jesus asks two of his disciples a question that he repeats almost word for word a few verses later to a blind beggar sitting beside the road. I had read both encounters many times without noticing how closely they were connected.
Because their answers could hardly be more different.
