April showers have begun in Austin, and the drizzle has forced a retreat from our yard duties, thereby allowing me the chance to observe the first anniversary of Jericho Brisance. Initially begun as an extended open letter to friends (now the Journey pages), the site has since grown into a full-fledged blog. In all, Jericho has had over 16,000 views from 82 different countries. Modest by the measure of many blogs, yet astonishing to me nevertheless.
As an open letter, Jericho was perhaps a successful failure. On one hand, it provided a means for friends who wanted to understand the deeper reasons behind my deconversion to read the details, but privately and on their own terms. A number of friends did just that, with some reading the rather long Journey in a single sitting. Yet others have refused to look at Jericho, either out of disinterest or (more often) out of protest. I would like to say that it led to serious consideration among my friends, but that would be going much too far. I suspect that it may have planted critical questions, but in honesty, any serious doubts have remained quietly held.
Nevertheless, I’ve been very blessed to hear from a number of others that found my Journey helpful. Some felt a resonance with the story, while others said it filled in missing puzzle pieces. It has raised the spectre of the Old Testament for a number of readers whose personal inquiries had been previously confined to the New. This constitutes progress of a serious sort. Blog posts that I wrote in the year following the initial Journey pages have ranged widely. It is hard to call out a favorite, though I would have to include the posts on dinosaur blood, the New Testament timeline, Justin Martyr, and Pontius Pilate as strong candidates.
But all of this aside, I am compelled to say that the most positive result of the Jericho blog experience has been meeting such interesting people, developing new relationships of many levels and types, and enjoying tremendously stimulating conversation and exchanges of ideas. I just can’t thank you guys enough. Its been a blessing unlooked for, particularly given the reasons why Jericho first began. Gratitude and peace. Cheers, Matt
Jericho Brisance 
OK my blogging friends, riddle me this… I can upload images to WP, then specify a size when they are on the page. But to get those pictures to show up on Facebook links, I have to also specify them as the “featured image.” This image cannot be resized, so in the reader feed it shows up as monstrous, which I really do not like. The only option I can find is to resize the image in the WP image editor… yet if I do that, people report that they cannot see it show up correctly in some browsers for some reason. The only option remaining seems to be to manually resize the images offline, then upload, but that’s a real hassle. Anyone know how to handle this?
Thanks!
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Have you tried praying to Veles? 😉
Happy B’day, Matt. A great blog you have created here.
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Thanks John, for all your insights and your camaraderie.
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Austin? We live close IRL! 😀 Happy anniversary on your blog!
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Nice! Hmmm, coffee sometime perhaps? That could be lively. Thanks!
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Coffee? Absolutely! I’m in the area occasionally, maybe once a year. My wife is politically active as a libertarian, so we show up to the Capitol sometimes for meetings.
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Ok, just holler when you’re coming to town. 🙂
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Happy bloggiversary! One of my favorites. 😀
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Thanks Ruth
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Congratulations, Matt. You are a gifted researcher and communicator, and I’m glad that you’ve put so much effort into this blog. It keeps reminding me why and how I was successful in coming to see the light over 11 years ago.
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Thanks Blane. You’ve been a great support and example for us. A success story that says, well of course it’s possible. 🙂
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Happy anniversary!
Thanks so much for all your work here. This is my very favorite blog. 🙂
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Thanks dude, I appreciate that a great deal.
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Welcome. 🙂
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Happy bloggaversary! Keep going
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Thanks Mak. 🙂
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Congrats on 1 year. Very informative. Can’t help with the Facebook concerns.
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Thanks Zoe!
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Happy Anniversary Matt, I always enjoy reading here.
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Happy Anniversary Matt! You have a top-notch blog here. I especially love all the info-graphics you’ve done.
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Thanks Howie. 🙂
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