Chapter 16 - Journaling

Chapter 16 used 7 scripture passages to encourage the use of journaling as a tool for personal spiritual growth, as follows:

Ephesians 6:10-18
Jeremiah 17:5-10
2 Corinthians 4:7-5:5
2 Corinthians 10:11
1 Chronicles 16:8-16
Luke 2:8-19
Luke 1:1-4

The hymn for Chapter 16 was "I Must Tell Jesus” by Elisha A. Hoffman. (If you are not familiar with the song, just Google the hymn name and you will get multiple sources to read and/or hear it, as well as its history.)

The meditation selections included excerpts from the writings of Edward J. Farrell, Madeleine L’Engle, Susan Annette Muto, Elizabeth O’Connor, Morton T. Kelsey and Ira Progoff. (Googling their names may give you some insight into their backgrounds and experiences, if that's of any interest to you.)

Some of the interesting quotes from the meditations included:
· “One of the ways I have learned to pray is by writing.”
· “A help to me in working things out has been to keep an honest – as honest as the human being can be – unpublishable journal.”
· “The journal is not so much an integral part of the building as a scaffolding which is needed to construct the building and then needed later to repair the structure. But the size of the building one can construct without scaffolding is limited indeed.”
· “A journal is not only a record of events that touch and transform us; it is a private space in which we can meet ourselves in relation to others and God.”
· “Writing stops the flow of experience so that we can look at it again and gain insight into what was really occurring…”
· “…there is not a right way or wrong way to keep a journal.”
· “The keeping of a pilgrim journal requires a conscious, unswerving commitment to honesty with one’s self… This takes a lot of courage, a lot of endurance, a commitment to press on when we want to shrink back. The goal is to make Jesus Christ the Lord of our life.”
· “Among our primary tools for growth are reflection, self-observation and self-questioning. The journal is one of the most helpful vehicles we have for cultivating these great powers in ourselves. …Journal writing is enforced reflection.”
· “The journal not only gives us a way of dealing with the feelings that are often ready to burst out of us, but offers us objectivity about them as well. How different ideas seem as they lie naked on the page before us than in the moment of ‘inspiration’. Sometimes they appear less and sometimes even more inspired.”
· “The keeping of private journals has played a particularly important role in the history of religion… The individual uses the journal as a means of measuring his progress… Journals are used especially in those situations where a person is having difficulty in attaining his goal. A private journal is … for recording and then for evaluating how far he has attained his goals and to what degree he has failed. It is helpful up to a point in providing a means of reflection for the contents of the life.”

What do any of these quotes (or any of the meditations in Chapter 16 not quoted) mean to you? Please post your responses to the blog site.
John