Photo by Sixteen Miles Out on Unsplash
This one won’t be the first, where I’m speaking more to myself than to you. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve decided to start a journal and 5-10 pages into it, I’ve abandoned it for some other bright and shiny object. Or maybe I got busy or woke up too late. Somehow my resolution fell by the wayside. But I don’t give up, a little later I start all over again.
Here’s what I’ve learned over the years, teaching the Bible to hundreds of youth and young adults, some not so young — If I wait until I’ve got it figured out before I teach on it, there will be a lot of lessons I will avoid. So let’s take a look at journaling and just admit it, nobody’s perfect. After all, that’s what’s going to make your journal so interesting.
First, I do not sit down at my desk to put into verse something that is already clear in my mind. If it were clear in my mind, I should have no incentive or need to write about it. We do not write in order to be understood; we write in order to understand.
— C. S. Lewis
So, the first thing to know is that writing your ideas down will help you work through your ideas for better understanding. Through our journals we understand the world around us, we understand how we feel, we tease out ideas that are at first half-baked, we test hypotheses, we note important events and activities, we plan for the future, confess the past, admit our anxieties… I hope you can see the value in that short list. You can make it longer and more your own. Just find a composition book, spiral-bound book, or fancy diary with a lock on it, I don’t care, start working through the ideas and events of your life, a little at a time. Whatever suits you is fine for fifteen minutes in the morning or ten minutes before bed.
One of the longest consistent runs of my journaling was in a three-ring binder, and the paper was reused printer paper with one side still blank. I had recycled it from pages of academic printouts that still had once good clean side. Find anything to write on then find a way to save it for future use. Later I went back to this notebook with a highlighter and picked out the parts that I still wanted to work with.
I’m about three times faster when I type it out on my MacBook Pro, but fast is not necessarily better. You might want to take a look at the popular Bible reading plan, by Pastor Wayne Cordero called, The Life Journal Reading plan. His method is followed by a large number of people that read through the Bible and this journal every day with this acrostic:
SOAP
Scripture: Read a passage or chapter from the Bible, a single verse, or a longer portion.
Observation: Reflect on what you have read and observe the passage. Consider the context, themes, and any insights that stand out to you.
Application: How does the passage apply to your life?
Prayer: Conclude with prayer. Talk to God about what you have read, and ask for guidance for daily help.
This plan can be followed by reading the Bible for just ten minutes a day, then writing a few lines or a half-sheet. Find a slip of paper you can reuse and try it today. Sometimes I’ll take paper like that, fold it up, and put it in my back pocket, to refer to throughout the day.