JOURNALING

writing it down and keeping track

ver.: 11 March 2005

Devotional journals have been everything from a child writing down her daily thoughts about God in a notebook, to complex systematic projects with structured Bible passages and discipline exercises and such. Dan Phillips calls it simply "a written record of personal reactions to spiritual matters". The key thing about a journal is that it's a place to spiritually share yourself with God and with yourself. You're pouring your thoughts out to God, but you're also part of the audience, because you go back to it to see how you've spiritually grown -- or perhaps shrank.

What kind of things go into it?

• things you sense around you (observations)
• places you've been and what you draw from them (pilgrimage and travel)
• insights you've had along the way
• prayers you've prayed (formally-written, poetic, or said/screamed/sobbed toward God).
• special things that others have written or said.
• ways you've surprised yourself.
• things you've discovered while looking back in the journal.
• that which comes to you while meditating on something.

As with most spiritual practices, there are important guidelines that help to make the journal effective. The most important is that you must be honest with yourself and God when writing. You probably won't get that right from the start. Few of us have any idea of what it really means to be honest to God, and so we have to learn as we go along. Another good guideline is that the date and time should be marked with each entry. You can refer to that when you're looking back, or trying to remember. And, it is most helpful if the entries are tied into a rhythm of regular Bible reading (such as in a lectionary cycle) and private prayer. This is a spiritual journal, not a diary. Its focus is on the relationship between you and God, not you and your boyfriend or you and your pastor or you and your psychiatrist.

Get yourself a good, sturdy book for it, because you'll be taking it with you when you move, travel, go on a retreat, or make pilgrimage. It's too important a task to be left to a flimsy notebook. Leave the book you're currently using in plain view, so that it can beckon you to come and write. Think without analyzing. Leave yourself open so the Spirit can get you to share honestly as you're writing.

A journal is like a muscle : when you use it regularly, it can carry more spiritual weight in your life.

Try these sites for journaling ideas :
Diane's journals;
Dan Phillips on developing a spiritual journal;
Web Journaling

You can look further into these matters: