I do not understand people

The website that hosts my blog has added a new system that tracks statistics. At first blush, it's interesting. Then I start looking deeper and I can't figure out what I'm looking at.

Here's what it tells me. The #1 all time post that I made that people have looked at (since, of course, the beginning of this system which started in June) is ... drum roll ... Hard Sayings - "Sell all your possessions". I mean, seriously ... that one? Who do you suppose is so diligently examining this topic? Who is it that is actually concerned about whether or not we are supposed to sell all our possessions? Do you figure it's devout Christians desperately seeking God's will for their lives? Or is it perhaps skeptics who are looking for ammunition? I honestly don't know. It just seems so ... odd.

But wait! It gets more unbelievable. The #2 post for all time is ... get this ... The History of the Choir. Okay, now, come on! I could vaguely imagine some people interested in Jesus's saying about selling all your possessions, either by way of agreement or by way of disagreement. Fine. But how is it remotely possible that the history of the church choir could be a hot topic on anyone's list? On the day I was looking at these stats, there were 10 hits on the "Sell all your possessions" thing and 7 on the "History of the Choir" post. That was in one day. Looking over the week, it was 33 for the first and 22 for the second. In the past month 81 people have viewed that choir page. I had no idea that there were that many people hunting for information on the church choir. What could possibly cause that? I don't get it at all.

The one statistics page that really amazed me was the "Audience" page. This one gave me listings of where my visitors come from. Obviously the United States is at the top of the list, followed by the UK and Canada. Okay. I can see that. But it's pretty interesting when you see visits from Ghana, Micronesia, Malaysia, Slovenia (where is that, anyway?), Russia, and China. Mine is an overtly Christian blog about overtly Christian topics and overtly conservative Christian perspectives. To get readers from all of these places is, well, surprising and humbling.

In my youth I dreamed of being a writer, of writing stuff that people around the world would read and enjoy. Of course, my first attempts to get published, met as they were with polite "no thank you" letters, put an end to that idea. Still, it appears, via the magic of the Internet and by means of people I don't know and don't understand that I am actually writing stuff that people around the world read. Okay, I won't claim "enjoy", but read. And, seriously, how is it remotely possible that my second most read blog is on the history of the church choir? Yeah, I don't get that at all.