spiritual discipline tuesday: journaling

Introduction to journaling

Of the spiritual disciplines being discussed in this series Journaling is by far one of my favorites. I have been journaling in one form or fashion since I was eight years old. Incidentally, that is around the same time that I began a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, so I think that I can say with a measure of confidence that the three spiritual disciplines I have practiced the most consistently are: meditation, prayer and journaling.

In preparation for this post I dug up all of the journals that I have filled and my current journal: 22 total! Pictured are 21 journals (including my first journal from my childhood)--the Moleskine journal at the bottom of the photo is my current journal and one of my other journals is not pictured. On average each of these journals are 200 pages in length with some having only 100 pages and others having close to 400. I write front-and-back on each page, so in reality these journals hold double the amount of content as physical pages. I have filled 21 of these journals, so a conservative guess is that pictured is a record of two decades worth of the real life working out my salvation on approximately 4,000 physical pages, or 8,000 pages front-to-back!

Among other things, journaling can:

• Help you make significant decisions.
• Reveal the subtle guidance of the Holy Spirit in your life over long periods of time.
• Help you vent frustration, put words to your thoughts and practice confession of sin.
• Inspire those whom you love by sharing a real life journey with Christ after you have gone to be with Him through the bequeathing of your journals to your children.

I'll tell you more about how I journal at the conclusion of this post.

Biblical basis for journaling

While you will never find Jesus teaching about journaling, the discipline is there in Scripture--most notably in the book of Nehemiah. In fact, the majority of Nehemiah should be considered the journaling of Nehemiah in his work to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. Elsewhere in the Bible we find God commanding (yes, commanding!) a theology of remembrance among his people. Numerous times Israel was command to set up stones in various locations as a means of remembering the work of God in their community. Journaling is a modern way of remembering the work of God in the lives of his people.

Journaling as a means of enhancing the other disciplines

Journaling can definitely be done as a discipline all to itself, but it can also be used as a way of enhancing the other disciplines. Below are a few examples:

• Meditation: In meditation we ruminate and ponder over brief passages of Scripture or individual verses. Journaling what the Spirit reveals to us in these times helps us remember, obey and act.
• Prayer: Trouble concentrating while praying? Who doesn't! Try writing your prayers out to Jesus. This can provide an amazing record of answered and redirected prayers. Sometimes I write names of people on the last page of my journal to remind me to pray for people in my church.
• Fasting: Every time that I fast I experience different physical sensations, spiritual battles and important passages of Scripture. It has helped me grow in the discipline of fasting by recording all of this.
• Study: This one is obvious: use your journal to write down what you are learning in your times of concentrated study.
• Simplicity: You don't need a fancy-schmancy journal. The majority of the journals that I have filled are acid free artist sketch journals that I picked up for around three or four bucks. My current journal is the most expensive journal that I have ever purchased, but it was purchased as a gift to begin chronicling my journey into parenthood. (I fill about one to one-and-a-half 200 page journals a year, so spending a lot of money on a journal doesn't make much sense to me.)
• Solitude: My journals have been with me during every soul.break that I take. More on this below and when I talk about solitude in a few weeks.
• Worship: Write a psalm or a poem of praise to Jesus!

Practicing the discipline of journaling

Most of what I know about journaling has been the result of two decades of trial and error, and I have yet to discover a strong source of teaching on the discipline. That said, Bob Roberts provides a nice primer on journaling in Transformation (p's 86-92).

Here are a few things to keep in mind as you develop this spiritual discipline:

• As with every other discipline you may be beginning, avoid disappointment if at all possible! Here's what I suggest: purchase an affordable basic journal and write in it twice/week until you gain momentum.
• Write about anything and everything: record stuff you consider "spiritual" like prayer concerns, thoughts on Scripture and answered prayer as well as stuff that you consider "mundane" like what you did that day, what your hopes/dreams are, lists of stuff you need to do and what is frustrating you. Soon you'll discover Christ moving in and out of the daily rhythm of all you do... it will no longer be mundane!
• Write about anything and everything: no, this is not a typo. If you don't write, you'll never learn how to journal! JUST DO IT!!
• Find out what suits you. I used lined journals up through college and have used unlined artist sketch books since then because I like to draw from time-to-time. I also don't use spiral bound journals anymore because they get messed up in my backpack.
• Use YOUR voice. You're not Hemingway, so don't try to be the world's best writer. Just be honest, authentic and write for two people only: Jesus and yourself. Besides, you'll find it more of a joy to write if you can just be open and honest in your writing language.
• Periodically re-read your journal(s). I re-read my most recent journals once every six months or so. I go away for a few days of solitude (more on that when I talk about that discipline) and review every page of my life since my previous time of solitude. I then write down the three-to-five major "themes" that are developing in my life. After that, I ask Jesus what he wants me to know about them. And, of course, I journal what I hear the Spirit saying to me. Then I make a decision about what I'm going to do about it. And, you guessed it, around six months later on my next solitude retreat I review what I wrote during the previous time and do the process again. This has proved unbelievably insightful in helping me clearly see the direction of the Spirit in my life. It has helped me root out pockets of sin as well.
• "But I don't have time to journal!" Really? I don't believe you. If you write for 15 minutes twice a week you can write 200 pages in a journal each year. Surely you can find 30 minutes this week...
• Write about anything and everything: I know, I know: you heard me already. But, did you? What are you going to do after you read this blog post??

Enjoy this discipline. It is so unbelievably fun once you get the hang of it!

Spiritual Discipline Tuesday series
The following bloggers have also posted about journaling (click the name to see the post): Art Rogers, Paul del Signore.

Archive list of the disciplines (with links) and the bloggers involved in this series available via my series introduction post.

Comments

[Nancy]

good instruction and gives good insentive for me to do so. thanks

[adam feldman]

thanks for stopping by, nancy! i'm glad the post was helpful.

[Jamie Turnipseed]

Adam, Thanks for posting these "Lessons." FWIW, they've been a big help and encouragement.

[kim]

Another tip: if you get behind in your journaling, don't try to do a catch up entry or you will just keep putting it off. Just start with what is going on now, what God is doing in yout life today. Just write! Even if it has been a while since your last entry.

[Steve Webel]

Seems to me the "Spiritual" discipline would be "remembrance" not "journaling".

Unless we are not making distinctions between 'spiritual' disciplines and disciplines that are not inherently spiritual.

So many of the world's current and past Christians are illiterate. To say that Scripture commands them to "journal" seems wrong, doesn't it?

Steve

[adam feldman]

jamie~ glad it's beneficial for you!

kim~ good point. it can get overwhelming trying to play catch-up.

steve~ thanks for stopping by! i hear what you are saying, which is why i mentioned in the post about God's periodic commandments to israel to remember what he was doing. i think, however, it might be splitting hairs and belaboring a mute point to argue over titles for this particular spiritual discipline for two reasons:

first, the vast majority of believing people over the span of history have been illiterate, but we cannot discount the inclusion of a journal in scripture (i.e. nehemiah) as sacred, spiritual literature. nor can we discount the fact that the discipline of "study" was also practiced in a time period when the vast majority of the people couldn't read. yet, they studied and memorized whole sections of the bible! besides, just because the small percentage of literate people could read and write (journaled and studied) doesn't mean the disciplines of journaling or studying aren't legitimate for all believers in an era when more believers can read and write than ever before.

second, to say something like journaling is not "spiritual" is to make an arbitrary delineation and fragment life between "spiritual" and "material." this is gnostic thinking at its best. it would be like saying there is "christian" music and "secular" music, which is an absurd labeling since music doesn't have a soul that can be saved by the blood of Christ and, therefore, cannot be any more "christian" than a stone. i'm speaking hyperbole. put another way, what would you consider the "spiritual" disciplines? for example, what makes fasting "spiritual?" when a medical doctor asks you to fast for 12 hours before a procedure, is that a spiritual fast? does it become spiritual just because you read your bible during that time? if that's the case, what is it for the thousands of people who have the same fasting procedure but do not read their bibles? i take a more generous (biblical?) view and see all activities as having spiritual implications--journaling being one of them. the incarnation of christ begs this view of life--the mingling of spiritual and material into one.

whether it be stacking stones, building altars, or writing in journals it is all a discipline and theology of remembrance as you have said. the "discipline" of journaling is a more modern way of engaging in the command to remember, and it is a "spiritual discipline" in the true sense of the phrase if it is something we do not do naturally and it draws us deeper into the Christ-life as a result.

thanks for the discussion!