2016 in Review

Okay, so I’m a little late in doing this. Actually, I’m a little late in taking care of a lot of things. For example, in my last The Lutheran Difference post, I asked for your questions and promised that I would answer them. And then I didn’t. I have two in the hopper that I’ll address starting on Monday, I promise. But in the meantime, I want to do a tiny retrospective of the previous year.

2016 was interesting, wasn’t it? I mean, some of you may be more than a little upset due to the political landscape shift or because of the myriad of celebrity deaths. But none of that is what I want to talk about. Instead, I want to do some selfish navel gazing and talk about my year. Because it’s my blog AND IT’S ALL ABOUT ME!

via GIPHY

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Okay, now I’m dealing with some crippling Lutheran guilt over that GIF.

I know I did this last year, and I thought I’d do it again. Here, for no other reason than to toot my own horn, are the posts that I wrote over the past year that got the most attention, from most attention to least-most:

1. A Report from OYAN 2016. This was definitely one of the highlights of my year, being able to gather with I don’t know how many homeschooled authors and talk craft and be silly with them. I had such a blast this last year, I’m already planning and plotting for this summer. Be forewarned!
2. Is the Atheist My Neighbor? Prompted by a meme I saw floating around Facebook, I decided to deflate it and talk about why, as Christians, we should be more sensitive to how we talk about atheists and agnostics and so on. This one actually generated a heated discussion on a friend’s Facebook page. So I guess good for me for promoting some discussion?
3. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. My movie review of what I still consider one of the worst movies of the year. Don’t get me wrong, the DCCU’s next entry into their cinematic train wreck universe was probably worse, but this stumbling first steps does not inspire confidence. Here’s hoping a certain Amazonian can right the ship and soon!
4. Iron Man: A Hero in Free Fall. I’ll admit it, this was a blatant attempt at getting more followers on Facebook. It was prompted by some thoughts that Captain America: Civil War stirred up in me, but I wrote this article specifically so I could promote it on Facebook and hopefully snag some attention. Apparently a lot of people read it, so there is that.
5. The Lutheran Difference: Infant Baptism. So I’m close to wrapping up this series and I’m pretty proud of it. But it’s no surprise to me that this post, about one of Lutheranism’s defining characteristics, got so much attention. We are inveterate paedobaptists, after all.
6. Your Opinion Is Wanted. I needed some advice and so I asked for it. Apparently a lot of people wanted to know what was up. Thanks!
7. A Warrior’s Hubris. The original meme-busting post, this one was prompted by a meme that I saw floating around Facebook. And apparently it got some traction on-line. Maybe I need to do more of those posts…
8. Rebooting a Classic: Quantum Leap. Technically this post wasn’t written this year, but here’s the thing: not many people have written about rebooting Quantum Leap. As a result, when people Google “rebooting Quantum Leap,” they wind up at my blog to read my rambling thoughts about it.
9. The Lutheran Difference: An Introduction. Apparently my foray into Luther-splaining things caught some attention.
10. Why I Like “I Dislike ‘The Fault in Our Stars.'” Again, an old post snuck its way onto this list. No idea why. Just my rambling thoughts about a YouTube video about John Green’s book.

So there we have it. The top ten posts for my blog.

What will 2017 bring? No idea. None. But it’ll be interesting to find out.