Many people resist journaling because it feels like a chore, like an essay test, or like a duty they “should do.” I can’t tell you how many times people respond to my own testimony about journaling by saying, “I know I should journal, but I just can’t get into it.” I suggest we re-frame journaling as a valuable tool for paying attention to our inner lives, our souls. A journal is not a classroom assignment or a duty; it’s a powerful way to pay attention to your heart and mind.
A journal is more like a letter to God,
a way to focus in prayer,
a way to clear your head and process your thoughts.
A journal is like a great friend who listens on paper instead of in person.
A journal is “holy daydreaming” in ink.
A journal is a way of paying attention. Most of us lack the mental discipline to maintain focus on a consistent train of thought for a significant amount of time. Our thoughts wander, and we have to pull ourselves back to the subject time and again. Journaling keeps us engaged on a topic to the point where we gain new clarity and insight.
It takes a bit of practice to get over the “classroom syndrome” of thinking your journal has to meet a certain standard of excellence. There’s no one grading you. God especially isn’t interested in grades, any more than a parent would grade the spelling or grammar of a note from her kindergarten-age child. It’s all about the connection.
Let me get one thing out of the way: Should you use a computer or keep a notebook? I have read (though I cannot find the research reference—sorry) that there is a significant link between hand writing and heart connection. That intrigues me. I personally find the pace of writing by hand better matches the process of SoulShaping (my own word) than typing on a keyboard. I am quick to acknowledge, however, that the choice is yours. If you use a notebook, shy away from fancy leather-bound journals because they tend to make us think we’ve got be “neat and tidy” in our writing. And it’s often difficult to write in them because they don’t lie flat. I prefer an inexpensive spiral notebook with lined paper.
In previous posts I have written about the benefits of keeping a journal. Now I’d like to share some guidelines for journaling. There’s no right or wrong way to keep a journal. The basic principle is: Does it help you better understand the Lord, yourself, and others? Here are seven principles that can set you on the road to developing your own style:
Begin with a simple prayer.
My starting point is that my journal is a spiritual conversation with the Lord. Prayer affirms this at the outset. I use a simple prayer whenever I prepare to journal or to study or to work on a sermon, a blog or any other project. I open my hands, holding them palms up, and say, “Lord, give me what you want to give me in this time.” Trust the Holy Spirit to guide you. The Lord searches our hearts and directs us to the most important matters.
Work with feelings and perceptions.
The journal should not be a chronicle of dates and events. The insights come from paying attention to how you felt and what you perceived about events and situations.
Trust your own insights.
If they are wrong, that will become apparent in the process of writing. A proper sense of independence and personal authority is healthy. After all, who, besides the Holy Spirit, is a better authority on yourself than you?
Anything goes.
Be completely free in your journal. Write it for your eyes only, not to impress someone who may someday read it. It is private; no one is looking over your shoulder. You’re free to go with God over the landscape of your soul: to trudge along, to skip, to run, to roll. Draw, tell your story, write poetry, jot down phrases, record quotes, make charts, delve into memories… use whatever captures your mood and mind in that moment.
Be honest.
Don’t fool yourself with pious talk; if you feel lousy, say it. We are free to be honest because as someone said, “The One who knows me best, loves me most.” In honesty, we will see both the light and dark sides of our souls. The point is to accept them and take God with us as we explore them.
There is a natural tendency to what I call “spiraling.”
This is my own term for going over the same ground again and again. The center of the spiral, the issue, may be the same, but our understanding of it is continually deepening and progressing like the widening loops of a spiral.
Discipline yourself to write positively.
The aim of the journal is to generate the energy to be an overcomer. State the facts, record your negative feelings honestly, but then seek out the promise.
The Book of Proverbs says,
Above all else, guard your heart,
for everything you do flows from it. (Proverbs 4:23).
Your journal is one of the most effective ways to guard your heart, to listen to the Lord, to pay attention to the movement of the Holy Spirit around you. Write on!
[Note that I have adapted these from an article I wrote called “Keeping A Personal Journal,” Leadership, Volume III, Number 1, Winter 1982, 156-57, and later published in my book SoulShaping: Taking Care of your spiritual life, Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1996, pages 72-76].
Heart and Mind 