Having recently completed my second Texas Water Safari, milestones are still fresh on my mind. I really like the mile markers that are placed along the 260-mile race course. These mile markers were helpful because they put my progress down the river into proper perspective. They encouraged me by showing me how far I had come and spurred me on by reminding me how far I still had to go.
This blog post is something of a mile marker because it is my one-thousandth blog post. When I posted my first blog on September 8, 2008 I never gave a thought to how many blogs would follow. Although I had kept journals for years, I entered the blogosphere with a bit of trepidation because my daily musings would now be accessible to a broader community of prospective readers. Would anyone stop by my little kiosk in the marketplace of ideas?
One-thousand blog posts later I am grateful for how blogging has helped me to grow and how it has enriched my own writing and thinking. A few years ago I read a post by John Piper in which he encouraged pastors to blog. In that post, he wrote: “If you strive to write well, you will at the same time be striving to think well.” I can attest to the truth of that statement. Among other things, blogging has helped me to think intentionally, to think deeply, and to think well on a daily basis.
Thinking well is a good thing. Blogging holds me accountable for being an active rather than a passive thinker. Prior to entering the blogosphere, it was easy for me to passively look at the stream of current events or the happenings in my own life and just watch them travel down the stream. However, blogging has forced me to engage with what is happening in the world in a whole new way. It has challenged me to keep the dust off my worldview and to apply and understand it in a dynamic way.
Blogging has also challenged me to be more transparent about my own life. I am a pastor. I deal with challenges and frustrations just like everybody else. And I have a real life. I don’t just sit in my office and read the Bible and pray all day. I am on the adventure of a lifetime as a Christ-follower. I am living out my faith daily in big and small ways, in all I do and among all I meet. And so, I enjoy sharing slices of my adventure through my blog. I want for people to be both encouraged and challenged by what I write.
At its core, my blog is about my life, lived openly and honestly in real-time. I am not interested in dipping my pen into some über-spiritual ink well. What you see is what you get. I love God, I enjoy serving people, I still miss my mother, I get angry at injustices suffered by the weak and vulnerable, I am something of a restless soul in search of the next adventure, I am a guy who embraces hard things, and I am less than perfect. But, I am on the journey of a lifetime.
Thank you to each of you who are regular followers of my blog, who have subscribed to receive my posts by email, and who leave comments and send me encouraging email. And thanks also to those of you who stumble upon or just happen to come across my little kiosk in the blogosphere. I am grateful for each and every guest to my site and always hopeful that what I write will edify, encourage, and challenge others to go beyond — to redefine the geography of their own lives by doing and becoming more than they ever thought possible.
Go Beyond 
Way to go Omar! Your blog inspires me and many others. Kingsland is blessed to have you lead our missions ministry. I appreciate the time, energy and effort you put into blogging. Doyle
By: Doyle Lowry on June 24, 2013
at 11:14 AM
Thanks, DL. Blogging has been and continues to be a fun and meaningful experience. Thanks for following.
By: Omar C. Garcia on June 24, 2013
at 11:19 AM
Congratulations Omar – WOW!
You touch my heart and my soul with every blog – thank you so,so much. Keep them coming and don’t ever retire!
By: jackiesayles on June 24, 2013
at 11:21 AM
Thanks, Jackie. I appreciate your friendship and encouragement.
By: Omar C. Garcia on June 24, 2013
at 11:22 AM
I love reading your blog! You inspire me to think about life in a different way often times. I don’t always comment, but do read them and am thankful to know you as a pastor and a friend, not just through your writings. On to the next thousand!
By: Carla Redhair on June 24, 2013
at 2:00 PM
Thanks for your kind words, Carla. I always appreciate your encouraging words and am grateful to know you and your sweet girls.
By: Omar C. Garcia on June 24, 2013
at 2:12 PM
Congratulations my “BLOG MENTOR”. You encouraged me to blog and it has been rewarding and challenging for me as well. Thanks for making the effort, a big one, to share your life with even more people through your blog. Imagine how many more people “Go Beyond” now that they see you doing it daily. God bless you as you roll out another thousand!
By: Steve Hyde on June 24, 2013
at 8:06 PM
Thanks for your kind words, Steve. So glad you are also blogging. I always enjoy receiving your Jungle Adventures via email. Thanks for sharing your amazing adventures with so many of us.
By: Omar C. Garcia on June 24, 2013
at 8:09 PM
And thank you, Omar, for entering our homes through your life experiences in words! You are a gifted man!!
By: Celia Peace on June 24, 2013
at 10:49 PM
Thanks a million, Celia. So grateful to have you and Steve in our lives. Thanks for your friendship, love, and encouragement through the years.
By: Omar C. Garcia on June 24, 2013
at 10:52 PM
Congratulations! Go Beyond blog has become more than a blog; it’s an important resource documenting informative, educational and adventurous information .
We are blessed to have been a part of your 1000 blog!
Veronica
By: Veronica Nakyewe (@Veronicana) on June 25, 2013
at 1:17 AM
Thanks, Veronica. We love you and are grateful for the life-saving work of The Comforter’s Center. Thanks for spreading the message about the sanctity of human life throughout Uganda. It has been a privilege for me to share stories about your work on my blog.
By: Omar C. Garcia on June 25, 2013
at 1:51 AM
Omar, thank you for sharing yourself through this blog. I’m always blessed and look forward daily to see where you are, what you’re doing and how you are finding ways to praise God and bless those with whom you come in contact. You always cause me to think outside my small world while I realize how truly blessed I am by the Father. Keep it up!
By: Cathy Bailey on June 25, 2013
at 10:20 AM
Thanks so much, Cathy. I appreciate your readership and your kind and encouraging words. Blessings!
By: Omar C. Garcia on June 25, 2013
at 10:23 AM