I used to think journaling was a waste of time. Why bother writing how you feel when you can GET STUFF DONE? It seemed like something to do that wasn’t that important. It wasn’t progressing things in the real world. It’s hard being a perfectionist!
Now, I’m more appreciative of journaling. It’s an external mirror for your mind and thoughts, which have an odd way of hiding from you. Sometimes you don’t know what you think until you say it or write it, and the process of asking concrete questions (what are 3 good things that happened today? What gave me energy today? What sapped energy from me today?) helps you understand your thoughts and feelings.
So many influential people have kept a journal: Benjamin Franklin, John Wesley, Theodore Roosevelt, Anne Frank, Charles Darwin, Winston Churchill, Leonardo da Vinci. They represent various times and walks of life. They all thought that recording their thoughts and feelings helped them understand themselves and track certain trajectories (if I feel lonely on Saturdays, what can I do to change that? Sometimes you don’t see the pattern without an honest record over time).
Anything that helps us be honest with ourselves is spiritually useful. How can we speak to God if we are not honest about ourselves and honest in our speech?
I’m going to borrow something from my friend Kendell Cameron. Kendell is the pastor of First Baptist Albemarle, and a recent article of his does a nice job of summarizing a medieval Christian approach to daily life and journaling. It was called an “examen,” an examination of your mental state.
"In his book A Simple, Life-Changing Prayer: Discovering the Power of St. Ignatius Loyola’s Examen, Jim Manney uses this form:
Pray for light: Begin by asking God for the grace to pray, to see and to understand.
Give thanks: Look at your day in a spirit of gratitude. Everything is a gift from God.
Review the day: Guided by the Holy Spirit, look back on your day. Pay attention to your experience. Look for God in it.
Look at what’s wrong: Face up to failures and shortcomings. Ask forgiveness for your faults. Ask God to show you ways to improve.
Resolution for the day to come: Where do you need God today? What can you do today?"
This examen can be used as part of your evening ritual or morning ritual (then you would use it to look back on yesterday), or posted in your bathroom or by your bedside, or in a notebook you use to jot down your thoughts.
Notable Links
What if we could use AI to talk with whales? https://kottke.org/24/02/how-first-contact-with-whale-civilization-could-unfold
Atomic Habits is really good. It analyzes how we form habits, and how we can change them. Why do we do what we do? Sometimes it’s this weird unconscious thing called a habit, and they can be good or bad for us.https://bookshop.org/p/books/atomic-habits-an-easy-proven-way-to-build-good-habits-break-bad-ones-james-clear/12117739?ean=9780735211292
Sunday’s scriptures
Isaiah 65:17–21. For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating, for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy and its people as a delight. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it or the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days. or an old person who does not live out a lifetime, for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth, and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed. They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
2 Corinthians 5:1–5. For we know that, if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to be further clothed with our heavenly dwelling, for surely when we have been clothed in it we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan under our burden because we wish not to be unclothed but to be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. The one who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a down payment.