Second Thursday after Pentecost
My email address is: candmwilson401@att.net
I am very happy to receive personal emails regarding the blog, as well as comments on the blog. I'll respond to all personal emails, usually within a day. I don't respond on the blog to personal emails. I would love to get another comment or two for me to respond to tomorrow, Friday being response day.
The blog will be on vacation next week. I'll be on vacation too. We're going to our condo in Manteo in the OBX. Don't worry. We'll safe distance and wear masks. Covid-19 cases are far fewer there than here. Usually after a week's absence readership of a daily blog drops off, so don't go away. I will be back. I'll send out email reminders when we're back.
Thursday is devotion, prayer, spirituality, spiritual disciplines, etc. day. Today I want to talk about journaling. Journaling has come to be considered one of the central spiritual disciplines. I've been keeping a journal since 2005. It looks like I would be good at it by now. I'm not. While I'm well aware of Jesus' saying, "If a blind person leads a blind person, they both fall in the ditch." Nonetheless, I'm going to talk about it. I would be grateful for any good hints from you as to how to journal better (and yes, now journal is a verb as well as a noun).
How is a journal different from a diary. For some--not much. For me a diary is a record of what a person has done during the course of a day. A journal is writing about things a person feels and thinks at the time of day he or she is writing. It can include the things a person has done or will do during the day, but doesn't have to include them. Journaling as a Christian spiritual discipline is based on, or at least includes, feelings and thinking about God. In my journaling about half the time my journal entry is addressed to God; about half the time to me.
I have a ideal picture of myself journaling. I'm sitting outside at the beginning of the day by myself sipping coffee, thinking, praying, and writing, while enjoying the beauty of the outdoors. I'm relaxed, unhurried, comfortable.
This ideal seems rarely to happen. It doesn't happen at all in cold weather. It doesn't happen early in the morning, because I sleep late. It doesn't happen first thing, because I read two newspapers first thing. By that time other stuff has come up. It's time to do my Daily Office devotional practice (Have I written about the Daily Office in the blog?). I'm already behind because I spend too much time reading the newspapers. I usually don't get around to journaling at all.
Another journaling practice which I don't get around to much is reading past entries. When I do, it's rewarding. I find what I was thinking on that particular day 15 years ago, or 2 years ago. I will then ask my self things like: How has my life changed since then? Have I grown spiritually since then? Sometimes I find myself saying, "I can't believe I wrote that."
A key thing about journaling is that it's just between you and God. In a world where everything is on the internet, people constantly share with and read about friends and even remote acquaintances on Facebook, journaling is one of the few things left that is private.
Two Thursdays from now, we'll continue this. I'll endeavor to write more entries. I would be grateful for any helpful hints you have for me.
Here is a prayer for this week:
Bless to me, O God,
My soul that comes from on high.
Bless to me, O God,
My body that is of earth,
Bless to me, O God,
Each thing my eye sees,
Bless to me, O God,
Each sound my ear hears.
Bless to me, O God,
Each scent that goes to my nostrils
Each taste that goes to my lips
Each ray that guides my way.
J. Philip Newell, Celtic Prayers from Iona
2 comments:
I too have been journaling for many years. I would have to go back and look to see when I started; I have a stack of journals that’s more than a foot high. I start each journal entry with Thankfuls. Three things that I’m currently thankful for. This is easier some days more so than others. I usually copy some scripture and make notes from the devotion that I read that day. I end most journal entries with a written prayer.
For as long as I can remember this time that I spend journaling is the first thing I do in the morning after I make the bed and pour a cup of coffee. I have a spot in our bedroom where I can look out the window at the pond next to our house. Unless I must be somewhere early in the morning this is my daily practice.
Seeing the movie, "Bridges of Madison County" cured me of any regular writing activity that I am not willing to allow to be made public. I have a variety of blogs, most related to one trip or another, but a few that are just my musings. My Jerry's Junque Yard (https://jerrysjunqueyard.blogspot.com/) is a general-purpose blog for the flotsam and jetsam that float through my mind occasionally. I find I often write a blog entry to dump something out of my mind.
Many of our Bible studies require/strongly encourage writing as part of the work to think about and reveal our thoughts. I have finally reached a point where I can force myself to write indelibly, but often the words are cryptic and meaningful only to me and usually, they go to the waste bin shortly thereafter.
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