Proclaimer Blog
Keeping my heart – in a journal
Do you keep a journal or a diary, I wonder? I try it from time to time but the plan often fizzles out for various reasons. However, recently, I've managed to be a lot more disciplined. Partly, I think, this is because we've been having a difficult family time which has given us many tears. How do you react in those kinds of times? Truth be told, I often feel a bit like Ezekiel who sat "overwhelmed for seven days". Keeping a journal has allowed me to articulate (in writing, if that's not an oxymoron) what is in my heart more clearly than if I was just sitting there like Ezekiel. I can write more honestly about myself than I can think about myself. I can read back and challenge what I've written – almost as though as I was chairing a PT preaching class. I can check the Scriptures I'm meditating on. For example, just thinking through 1 Peter 5.6-7, writing everything down forced me to develop and think through the relationship between humbling ourselves before a mighty God and casting all our cares on him. The link is important.
So, I don't think there's any rocket science involved. I'm certainly not keeping a journal for posterity or even for future generations, but it is helping me guard my heart before God – and for that alone I commend the practice.