1000 Miles – 1000 Blog Posts – Celebrating A Milestone

You’re reading the 1,000th Stretched Blog Post.

When I started blogging several years ago, I never envisioned that I’d write this many posts.  I simply set out to record my STRETCH marks.  My main goal of The Stretched Blog remains the same today as it was  when I first started – To process life’s experiences and to bring glory to God.  While that goal has been constant, other amazing outcomes have emerged.  Primarily, I have been so blessed to meet so many people from across the country and around the world.  The Stretched Community has been a huge blessing in my life.  Along the way, I hope I’ve encouraged and STRETCHED you.  Thank you for reading, for commenting, and for sticking with me along this journey.

Here are a few highlights from the first 1000 Stretch Posts:

• July 6, 2007 – The first post was actually untitled.  This post provided an introduction to The Stretched Blog.
• July 7, 2007 – D.C. Talk introduced our family vacation to Washington D.C.  It’s funny to see the picture of Isaac who would have been 7 years old on this trip.
• July 30, 2008 – It took a little over a year, but I made it to 100 posts with this one titled, In Search of Treadmill.
• October 21, 2011 – We celebrated the 500th Stretched Post with a guest post by Arny Sanchez – Field of Changed Dreams?
• February 27, 2012 – I wrote a post about my experience at a recent FamilyLife Weekend to Remember Marriage Conference.  This post has been the most visited post of all time – Ten Reasons To Attend FamilyLife Weekend To Remember.
• March 21, 2012 – It’s hard to pick out one favorite from among the first 1,000 posts, but this one stands out as one my favorites – Leap of Faith.
• November 7, 2012 – This was a day I won’t soon forget.  I posted How To Respond To The Election Results which drove the biggest single day of traffic on the blog.
• 328,000 words written to date!  Crazy!

Where do we go from here?

I plan to continue to write.  I don’t have a number of posts in mind, but I hope we can celebrate these kind of milestones every so often.  And I hope that I ultimately point people to Christ as I continue to share more STRETCHED stories and thoughts.

When did you start reading The Stretched Blog?  Which post stands out to you as one of your favorites so far?  How have you been stretched by being part of The Stretched Community?

As I was preparing for this milestone post, I came across this song by Mark Schultz – 1,000 miles.  I think the words speak well to where I’ve been and where I hope to go – not just here on The Stretched Blog, but for life in general.  Enjoy!

Short Film – 1000 Miles by Mark Schultz from Ben Salzmann on Vimeo.