2022 was a slow year for Darkened Glass Reflections. Only 37 articles were published (a decline from the previous year’s 47 and the fewest since 2015), and there was only a 2% increase in total page views. It was by far the slowest growth in the blog’s history.

I hope to publish at least one article per week. This has been my goal every year since 2016, but several factors led me to skip several weeks. One of my personal objectives for 2023 is to redeem the time (Ephesians 5:16) so that I may more effectively devote my energies to this blog as well as my responsibilities to my family and church.

A new series on the Sermon on the Mount began on March 6. Unlike some previous series, most articles will be “self-contained”; few will be numbered to look like part of a series since each article can be read on its own. Articles on other subjects will be interspersed, so there may be a few weeks between Sermon on the Mount articles.

Another change occurred around the same time. I noticed that articles that had the primary Scripture passage in the title seemed to draw more readers than those that did not have a Scripture citation in the title. So, most articles will have the Bible passage in parentheses after the main title.

The five most-read articles on Darkened Glass Reflections this year were the following:

• “A New Heart, A New Life—Ezekiel 36:25-27” (published September 4, 2016; third most-read article of 2021).
• “Understanding the Deep Waters of the Heart” (published December 10, 2017; the most-read article of 2020 and 2021).
• “Teaching, Reproof, Correction, and Training in Righteousness” (published December 9, 2012; the second most-read article of 2021, most read from 2014-2019, and the most-read article in the history of Darkened Glass Reflections).
• “Did the Lion Lie Down with the Lamb?—Isaiah 11:6” (published February 12, 2017). This was Part 1 of a three-part series. If you read it, please also read Part 2 and Part 3.
• “Remaining Alert—Luke 21:34-36” (published July 2, 2017; the fourth most-read article of 2021).

It is more difficult to rank the top five articles published during the current year. WordPress statistics often list a visit to the newest article as “Home page / Archives,” so the newest articles do not always get a fair calculation of total readership. Therefore, the top articles of 2022 are ranked based on the following criteria: first, the total number of times readers clicked “like”; first tie-breaker, total counted page views; and second tie-breaker, comments. This year’s top five articles, based on these criteria, were:

• “The Word Became Flesh. II: The Word Was God” (published January 16, 2022).
• “Putting on the Armor of God: St. Patrick’s Breastplate (Revisited)” (published March 17, 2022; reposting an article originally published on October 2, 2018).
• “Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit (Matthew 5:3)” (published March 27, 2022).
• “The Way of Escape (1 Corinthians 10:13)” (published October 16, 2022).
• “Just for Today (Not a Whole Year)” (published January 2, 2022).

If you have not read any of these articles before, please take the time to read them in the next few weeks.

Thank you to all who have read Darkened Glass Reflections faithfully and consistently. I pray that you will continue to join me on this spiritual journey. May God bless you throughout the coming year!

Copyright © 2023 Michael E. Lynch. All rights reserved.