Spiritual Disciplines - Journaling
Joshua 1-4, Various
January 13, 2008
Family vacations . . . you can have some amazingly fun time on them. Sometimes when you come back from your vacation you feel like you never went. There’s the laundry and the recovery of vacations . . . but there are a few ways to remember what your vacation was like. You could take time to write about it or you could take lots and lots of pictures. When you take pictures, like my family pictures, you’ve left yourself a record, a precious record of your vacation. A record of the scenery, of fun events, of milestone events. When there are children involved, these pictures can also be used later in life to reveal how truly silly and fun loving they were.
Or have you ever had to clean out your old books or someone else’s belongings, and as you do, you become engrossed in their old, old pictures, or maybe you find some books or journals in which they have written in and instead of cleaning, you find hours passing while you’re looking at and learning about someone’s lifestory.
In some ways, that is what we are going to talk about today. Last week we began our series on Spiritual Disciplines. Remember Spiritual Disciplines are utilizing biblical tools to enable us to draw closer to God and to become more Christlike. They help us on our journey during the good and not so good times. They help us when we are being tempted and struggling; and they help us in times of success and celebration. We can and must utilize Spiritual Disciplines if we want to grow in our relationship with Jesus.
Today we are looking at the Spiritual Discipline of Journaling. The Bible never tells us, nor are we commanded to journal and write things down, but we see examples of this on a number of occasions in the Bible, and I want to unpack one major story for you today.
After Moses died, a young upstart named Joshua became the leader of the Israelites. Moses had died and the people were now at the threshold of the promised land; the Jordan river, the land that was flowing with milk and honey. The people were there. It was time. They had gone through the dessert for 40 years, walking and wandering, living and dying . . . and now it’s time.
I can only imagine the anxiety of the people as they looked at the river. Joshua 3:15 tells us “the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest.” What does this mean? Have you ever seen a river running when it’s at flood stage? Did you watch the news this past week, after we had a great deal of rain, homes were flooded and the rivers were rapidly moving. The water isn’t sitting pretty, it’s rapidly racing, and this is the water the Israelites are going to cross. One thing to remember, only Joshua and Caleb were left from the original escapees from Egypt. Not one of this new group had seen the waters of the Red Sea part. All they understood about the dessert life was heat and more heat; sand and more sand, life and death, and manna. They ate manna all the time, they probably thought that manna was the only food source created by God.
The time has come, but they don’t know how to swim. There are no swim lessons in the dessert. So, what does Joshua do. He listens to the LORD, and the LORD tells Joshua the following, which he reports to the people, saying,
“10 This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites. 11 See, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you.
Can you imagine the scene? The priests are carrying the ark, the holiest of all the possessions of the Israelites; and they are heading right into the water. But wait a minute. It’s flood season, and the water is racing. But the priests keep going.
Joshua reports,
13 As soon as the priests who carry the ark of the LORD--the Lord of all the earth--set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap." 14 So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. 15 Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, 16 the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. 17 The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.
Amazing what happened. The water parted, and not only did the water part for the people to cross, it parted way back down river and up river. The people passed through the river and made it to the other side without getting a drop of water on them. They had entered the promised land. Unfortunately cameras had not been invented yet, so nobody could get out their digital or cell phone cameras. But they needed to mark this event, it was a huge event in the life of the people.
It was time to stop for a moment. Joshua understood that, even in the great moments in life, we need to stop and mark those moments so we can remember them. In some ways we need to memorialize that event, not to worship it, but to remember what took place. And that is what Joshua did. And this is what is leading us to consider Journaling as an important discipline.
Listen now to the next part of the story,
1 When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua, 2 "Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, 3 and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan from right where the priests stood and to carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight."
4 So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, 5 and said to them, "Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, 6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, `What do these stones mean?’ 7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever."
Notice a couple of points about this passage, whose idea was this for the Israelites to memorialize this moment in their history? It was the LORD telling Joshua to do this, and Joshua obeyed. The whole purpose was for the people to remember the amazing act of mercy God performed because of His love of the people. God knows us all to well, He knows our hearts are deceitful (Jer17:9); he knows how quickly we forget the blessings and joys of life, and seem to dwell on that which we don’t have and on that which is negative. So God wants that memorial for the people to look at, and importantly for the people to pass onto their children. How many times in our lives, have we not told our children, our nephews, nieces, grandchildren, friends, anyone . . . some of the great God moments in our lives, the times when we really experienced the presence of God, the times when we really experienced His healing, His presence, His grace, His answered prayers?
Even after the Israelites have set up camp in Gilgal, Joshua sets up another 12 stones to memorialize the amazing works of God. Why does he do this? He said,
21 "In the future when your descendants ask their fathers, `What do these stones mean?’ 22 tell them, `Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ 23 For the LORD your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The LORD your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. 24 He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the LORD your God."
5:1 Now when all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard how the LORD had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites until we had crossed over, their hearts melted and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites.
The purpose of the stones was to help the people remember what God accomplished in the midst of His people.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at what Journaling is and how we can use this Spiritual Discipline to help us grow in who God is calling us to be.
**Charon’s research - definition**
In his book, How to Keep a Spiritual Journal, Ronald Klug wrote,
A journal or diary is a day-book - - a place to record daily happenings. But it is far more than that. A journal is also a tool for self-discovery, an aid to concentration, a mirror for the soul, a place to generate and capture ideas, a safety valve for emotions, a training ground for the writer, and a good friend and confident. (Page 9)
I want to distinguish journal writing from diary keeping. Neither is wrong, but if we are going to practice the Spiritual Discipline of Journaling, then I want us to see this as more than a daily diary.
A journal is a record of my spiritual journey. It can contain my joys, prayers, laments, impressions of God’s place in my life, my questions to God, my concerns about various issues in life . . . and the list can go on and on.
One of the beautiful aspects of Journaling is that it gives you a record of your spiritual progress. You can look back at your journal and ask yourself about that moment in your life, and see how you handled a difficult moment and grew from that experience. Those help us to see that we are growing on our journey in faith.
Many of the Psalms, are stories of David’s and others journey with God. Isn’t that one of the beauties of Psalms? Whatever mood we are in, we can find a Psalm that will help us know we are not alone in life, the psalmist has also been there. Not only that, the story of the fall of Jerusalem is recorded as the prophet Jeremiah’s laments in the book of Lamentations. How do you think Jeremiah is described as the “crying prophet?” Because the Bible records his spiritual journey. Even from many of Paul’s letters, we gain a better understanding about how he felt about certain situations, we know how he felt about serving and suffering for Christ, his impending death, and his hope in the resurrection of Jesus.
Journaling is one of the best places for charting your progress in the other Spiritual Disciplines and for holding yourself accountable to your goals. (Whitney 87 - study book) You can journal about your thoughts, impressions and reactions to practicing any of the other Spiritual Disciplines. Try fasting, and write down your experience with it. Try silence and solitude and you can journal your experience with it. You can write down experiences with any part of life in your journal. By doing this we have an opportunity to look back and see where we’ve been and track our progress toward holiness and Christlikeness.
When we have goals, we can write down our spiritual goals for the year. We can write down our goals in specific terms - I will read the entire Bible in 2008. You can write down your plan to reach that goal, then you can track to see if you are getting there and if not, then why not. In this sense, we can see the journal being a little like a diary, where you write down what is happening in your life. This is where keeping a journal and a diary have some overlap.
Let me give you a couple of other ideas about Journaling, then talk about ways to journal.
Often times we read the Bible, and at the end of the day we have no idea what we read about that day. So, one way to record your Bible thoughts is to write them down in a journal. One way to do this is through something I learned from Wayne Cordeiro. Wayne is the pastor of New Hope Christian Fellowship in Oahu. Wayne devised a system to help with recording our Bible reading with an acronym called SOAP. It’s really a pretty easy system to learn.
S is for SCRIPTURE.
Take your time as you read your Bible and allow God to speak to you. When you are done, write down the verse that spoke to you that day in your journal.
O for Observation
What do you think God is saying to you in this scripture? Ask the Holy Spirit to teach and reveal to you what God is saying. Is there something you haven’t noticed before in this passage. You can also write this scripture down in your own words, in your journal.
A for Application
Personalize what you read. Ask yourself how it applies to your life right now? How does God want you to take action as a result of reading that passage. Perhaps it is instruction, encouragement, revelation of a new promise, or corrections for a particular area of your life. Write how this scripture can apply to you today.
P for Prayer
This can be as simple as asking God to help you use this scripture, or it may be a greater insight on what He may be revealing to you. Remember, prayer is a two way conversation, so be sure to listen to what God has to say! (http://www.enewhope.org/firststeps/journaling/)
This is one way to try to record or journal our Bible readings, which helps us to grow since we are more apt to remember what we have written down.
Some will ask, how and when and on what do I journal? That answer is easy. Yes, yes and yes. In other words, whatever works for you is good. There are no official ways to journal. I like using the computer to write, others like using special paper, or special journals to write in, others want a spiral notebook and so on. What you write on really does not matter. . . it’s the writing that counts.
It’s important to be comfortable in your surroundings. If you are a morning person, do it in the morning as part of a morning time spent with God. Some people may use lunch time to journal, while others will make it the final act of the evening. The time does not matter, it’s what works best for you.
Remember the purpose of Journaling is not supposed to be an exercise in futility, it is to help you draw closer to Christ and become more Christlike. I would encourage you to try it. If you are feeling especially praiseful, then write down your reasons why, write out a prayer of thanks. If you are struggling with a certain aspect in life, then write it out, God already knows what it is, but maybe writing it, helps bring clarity to you.
One final benefit of Journaling is that it leaves a legacy. Someday we will all pass from this life to the next, and Journaling can be a great way for your family and friends to remember your words, thoughts, prayers, dreams, hopes and memories.
One other way to do this would be to sit down a tape record your life story. Simply talk about your childhood, your growing years, your most distant memories, your teen years, and so on. Talk about your God moments in life, the times when you experienced God, how you grew, your funny stories, your times of joy and grief. For many people this can be a time of healing, for others it will bring back wonderful memories. For many families, they will be left with a great story, yours, and they will always have your voice recorded, because many times, we just want to hear our loved one’s voice one more time.
Journaling is not as hard as we think it is, I would encourage you to just try it. Sit down and write your thoughts, even write out your thoughts about journaling. When words don’t come to you, just jot down a few words, and often times, more words come.
God wants us to remember our moments, good and bad, in some ways to memorialize them, just like the Israelites did at the Jordan River, when they put 12 stones together to symbolize and remember the great works of God.
Let us pray.
