Week 6 - Journaling
Lent is coming to an end and I hope you have taken advantage of a Lenten discipline and adopted it in your private life. As I said previously, I know it will change your walk with God. Through the end is in sight of this journey, I challenge you to keep up the work. Keep up with your faith and discipline; God will bless you.
I have one final discipline to offer you for reflection before the Passion of our Lord begins. Perhaps it is best defined as ‘reflection,’ but I am going to title it instead: journaling. This is an introspective discipline. When I have spent time writing in a journal, I have never shown it to anyone. I focus on me and my thoughts. This is something done privately between myself and God. I am not hiding anything from the world as I journal, but instead I focus on God solely and let God direct how the discipline takes shape.
I focus on honest reflection of my day, my week, my actions, my thoughts…whatever God puts in my mind I write it down. I do not edit it. If God put it there then God has a reason for that. Elizabeth O’Connor says, “The keeping of a pilgrim journal requires a conscious, unswerving commitment to honesty with one’s self.”
Journaling is a form of reflection. Whenever I write in a journal, I find that my thoughts are always reflective in nature. Even if I am not writing in my journal in the moment, I am thinking about what I am going to say in my journal. How will what I have just experienced be reflected upon? While I could be dishonest in my journaling and reflection, this discipline challenges me to be vulnerable with God and myself. I am the one, as I journal, who sees my thoughts and behaviors before they happen. The H0ly Spirit has called the things I journal to mind, so I must allow the moment to occur. I am the one who witnesses the after effects of the things I say and do.
This discipline can be as simple or deep as you the participant want to make it. It all sits in your lap….so have fun with this one. Try it and try doing it in different ways or places.
There are many examples I can offer you regarding journaling. Let’s just start with the simple instruction: write it down. There are a million formulas or patterns to follow. There are a million ways to do it. Some sit down and just write, they don’t think about it, they write. Put pen to paper and let whatever comes out come out. This is very spontaneous. Just write for a set period of time without stopping. Then go back and see what came out. Do not be ashamed or anxious about how you feel or what your write. Do not edit. Just do it, as the popular slogan goes.
You can also take a more directed approach and write about a certain portion of your day- like your morning and how that went. Write down everything that happened before lunch and see where your time was spent. Anything concept which comes to your mind can be entered into a journal and reflected upon.
Perhaps you want to write a favorite passage of scripture over and over again concentrating upon the words and their effect on you. There is not set amount of space to fill and there is no specific way to do it. You can write, type, or dictate it on your smart device. Just get out there and reflect upon what is happening in your day.
I have one final discipline to offer you for reflection before the Passion of our Lord begins. Perhaps it is best defined as ‘reflection,’ but I am going to title it instead: journaling. This is an introspective discipline. When I have spent time writing in a journal, I have never shown it to anyone. I focus on me and my thoughts. This is something done privately between myself and God. I am not hiding anything from the world as I journal, but instead I focus on God solely and let God direct how the discipline takes shape.
I focus on honest reflection of my day, my week, my actions, my thoughts…whatever God puts in my mind I write it down. I do not edit it. If God put it there then God has a reason for that. Elizabeth O’Connor says, “The keeping of a pilgrim journal requires a conscious, unswerving commitment to honesty with one’s self.”
Journaling is a form of reflection. Whenever I write in a journal, I find that my thoughts are always reflective in nature. Even if I am not writing in my journal in the moment, I am thinking about what I am going to say in my journal. How will what I have just experienced be reflected upon? While I could be dishonest in my journaling and reflection, this discipline challenges me to be vulnerable with God and myself. I am the one, as I journal, who sees my thoughts and behaviors before they happen. The H0ly Spirit has called the things I journal to mind, so I must allow the moment to occur. I am the one who witnesses the after effects of the things I say and do.
This discipline can be as simple or deep as you the participant want to make it. It all sits in your lap….so have fun with this one. Try it and try doing it in different ways or places.
There are many examples I can offer you regarding journaling. Let’s just start with the simple instruction: write it down. There are a million formulas or patterns to follow. There are a million ways to do it. Some sit down and just write, they don’t think about it, they write. Put pen to paper and let whatever comes out come out. This is very spontaneous. Just write for a set period of time without stopping. Then go back and see what came out. Do not be ashamed or anxious about how you feel or what your write. Do not edit. Just do it, as the popular slogan goes.
You can also take a more directed approach and write about a certain portion of your day- like your morning and how that went. Write down everything that happened before lunch and see where your time was spent. Anything concept which comes to your mind can be entered into a journal and reflected upon.
Perhaps you want to write a favorite passage of scripture over and over again concentrating upon the words and their effect on you. There is not set amount of space to fill and there is no specific way to do it. You can write, type, or dictate it on your smart device. Just get out there and reflect upon what is happening in your day.