Susan's Musings: Keeping a Spiritual Journal

Keeping a spiritual journal, especially at the end of a busy day, may enable us to slow our pace and put the present moment in a divine perspective. Rather than being swept along by a string of disconnected happenings, we attend to what we most want to remember.  A journal is like a good listener. We confess having rushed, almost breathlessly, from one task to the next. We reveal the truth of how often we acted under duress with no semblance of patience to soften abrupt actions or of humility to quell thoughtless decisions.

Reflective writing records the shift from hyperactivity to relaxed receptivity. We acknowledge our mistakes, thank the Lord for his mercy, and remind ourselves to rest in the peace of Jesus. Holding on to the moment and journaling about it leaves us feeling refreshed and ready to begin anew. Rather than fretting over past mistakes or worrying about future outcomes we can never predict, we ask the Lord to shape the landscape of our life. Keeping a spiritual journal facilitates our recognition of where the Spirit may be leading us. It represents a dialogue between us and God. We record what means most to us, what we want to treasure, and what we have to treat with detachment. Such writing confirms the ways in which we strive to see life not in isolated compartments but as a spiritual journey embellished by the awesome reality that God is in the details.

We feel more thankful for the grace of ongoing conversion and treasure the way in which the Lord has guided us so far. He has made of the often parched garden of our life “a spring of water whose waters never fail.” (Isa 58:11).

In regard to the past, a journal can also temper our nostalgic romanticizing about the “good old days,” which probably never existed in quite the way we recall. Remembering in the golden glow of nostalgia is one thing; reading an actual record of what happened is another.

A journal, kept regularly over a number of years, can provide us with a realistic perspective on our life’s journey. We can sense its real design, its pattern and not our fantasy about what might have happened.

Too often we are inclined to believe that our life is chaotic, a series of incidental events without rhyme or reason. Our journal shows us that this is not the case. What happens is similar to looking through a photograph album. We may be inclined to think that nothing much occurred, that life passed us by, but the photos belie this conclusion. We did go places and do things; we made friends and kept them; we were important to our parents; we saw our children through school and enjoyed family celebrations.

Rereading old journals convinces us that our life was not haphazard. It has a purpose in God’s eyes and our own. At times it was hard to see why things happened the way they did, but now we understand the reason. God knew what he was doing, even during a family tragedy or a weakening of our faith.

Our journal becomes a source of hope, a confirmation of our place in God’s forming plan. It reveals the mystery that out of so much that is flawed there can emerge something truly fine.

A journal honestly kept reveals that in the most ordinary of lives, we are not alone. Others have traversed the same terrain. We feel grateful that the Lord has graced us with new insights into things that keep us from being more closely united to him. We feel humbled at the thought of his love and care in granting us these graces. Had we not kept a journal, these sentiments would not have been aroused, for the original thoughts this writing generated would simply not have been available to us.

Such writing serves as a means of integration. It enables us to slow down and gather together otherwise scattered thoughts and feelings. We can better understand what dispositions we need to foster at this moment to live a more Christ-centered life and what obstacles stand in the way of this integration.

Writing reveals pitfalls on the road to consonant living and detours we might best avoid. It fosters the right balance between acknowledged limits and fresh opportunities for spiritual liberation. Above all, writing helps us to harness floating insights and convey fleeting impressions in lasting words. They bear testimony to our good intentions and efforts to grow more like the Lord day by day.

Silently, reflectively, prayerfully, without isolated introspection, force, or manipulation, we wait upon the Lord until he allows us to touch the living stream, the source from which all words spring.

Journal writing, which seems such a singular experience, becomes an entrance into the universal quest for spiritual meaning. It fosters a prayerful, hope-filled approach to living. Far from being a harsh discipline, journal-keeping becomes a condition for the possibility of free, creative self-expression, bringing us into communion with our Divine Companion. It makes explicit the ways he has been working in our lives. We feel the power and gentleness of the Lord in the gifted nature of these events. The written word evokes our consent to his plan, a yes more freely given each day. Journaling helps us to see how straight he writes in the crooked lines of our lives.