The Yearly Roundup

Since today is December 31, today Deuceology will present a yearly roundup, rather than a weekly one.  I ran the bottom 10 earlier in the week.  Today, here is the top 10 posts of the year.  Hopefully you will remember some of them.  Maybe a couple of them are new to you.

10.  The tenth most viewed post of the year is Church Visit #4 from just a few weeks ago.  My church visits, as a series, proved to be very popular.

9.  Number nine was Random Thoughts On My 43rd Birthday.  This surprises me because I began getting a lot more visits to my blog the month following this.

8.  The 8th most viewed blog post in 2011 for the Deuceology blog was Church Visit #1.  We are still searching and there are more to come.  There will also be a follow-up series about the first year in our new church when we find it.

7.  Lucky number seven was my non-guest post for Tamara Out Loud, For Crying @TamaraOutLoud.  I submitted a guest-post to Tamara and was not accepted.  This was my response.  It caused Tamara to worry needlessly.

6.  Number six in 2011 was Live In Your Church Today…Casey Anthony.  This may have been my most controversial post on the top 10 list.

5.  Moving into the top 5, Church Search Results.  Folks were really getting into this church search.

4.  The only post not written by me in the top 10 was Jon Stolpe’s I’m Dreaming Of A Stretched Christmas.  Jon is a great friend of the blog.

3.  The oldest post on the list is  Relentless Pursuit Of Continuous Improvement.  It is from all the way back in June.  I had no idea what I was doing.  Some say that I still don’t.

2.  Number two, just missing out on number one, was My 10 Favorite Rock/Pop Christmas Songs.  This is actually probably my least favorite on the list.

What made this next post Number 1???  Controversy?  Subject matter?  Biblical story?  Let’s just say, just like they do in advertising, that sex sells.  Number 1 out of the 237 posts that I’ve written this year is……………………….

Sister Wives, Mandrakes, And Sex And Sex And Sex And Sex

There you have it.  The top 10 posts of the year.  Here’s hoping that 2012 is a fantastic year.

Which post do you think should have been number 1?

Relentless Pursuit of Continuous Improvement

If you happened to watch College Football Live last Thursday, you might have seen Derek Dooley being interviewed.  Since I was at work, I jumped on my handy-dandy smart phone, turned on my DirecTV app and set the DVR to record.  Somehow that didn’t work, so my son happened to catch it and began recording for me.

The thing that stood out most in Dooley’s interview was what he said about developing his players.  He said that it takes a “relentless pursuit of continuous improvement.”  As a Tennessee fan, I certainly hope that there is this relentless pursuit throughout the remainder of the summer into fall camp and then each week as the season progresses.

The question we who follow Christ need to ask ourselves is if we share this relentless pursuit of continuous improvement in our life with Christ?  I think Paul would call this sanctification.  Sanctification is the part of salvation where we grow and mature throughout our Christian walk.  It is necessary for Christ to work in us during our sanctification.  But we can’t just sit on our laurels and expect it to just happen.

It takes the effort that we put forth to achieve it.  It takes a relentless pursuit of continuous improvement.  I don’t think many of us want to be the same as we were when we first came to know the Lord when we finally come to meet Him face to face.

I have been asking myself since last Thursday if I am pursuing Christ  with a relentless pursuit of continuous improvement.

How about you?