EXPOSE | The high purpose of journaling
“Journaling, for me, is part of a constant quest to see Christ and know Christ and enjoy Christ and be like Christ. I live to the glory of Christ.” – John Piper, founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary
EXPLORE | Journaling is a tool for becoming wise
I’m not a journal-ist. That is, a person who journals. In the past, when I have written things down, it was more out of being nudged to do so, but when I look back on those occasions, I appreciate that I had captured my thinking. But apparently, my appreciation wasn’t enough to drive consistency, and, unfortunately, it means I’m probably not as wise as I could be.
There was a season after I had become a Christian, where my friend Brian Driscoll and I took to capturing pages and pages of quotes from the books, sermons, and really everything we consumed. In fact, that passion from years ago is what prompted my collecting quotes for Words of Wisdom. That said, I could probably even argue that this blog is my way of journaling.
When you consider the benefits of journaling, they make a pretty good argument for developing a regiment around the joy that is remembering precious moments of clarity, confirmation, and deep understanding of ourselves and the wisdom from God.
Thai Nguyen, in his article 10 Surprising Benefits You’ll Get From Keeping a Journal, frames the broader benefits pretty well: fulfilling goals, sharpening our thinking, and even helping us heal. 8 Reasons Keeping a Journal Can Help You Reach Your Goals from Joshua Becker affirms our thinking through “the why’s and the how’s” and how it is a means of articulating our planning. There really isn’t a downside to journaling.
As an introvert, it’s most appealing for the opportunity to plunge into the world of thinking, pondering, wondering, and wandering. I like to call that “noodling”. However, I have found that as much as thinking deeply may be a strength, it can sometimes reveal itself as a weakness. The Free Dictionary gives us a little insight into why the word “Noodle”, which is slang for our heads or brains, might be a detriment: “to discuss, speak, or think about something in an idle, aimless, or purely speculative manner.” This is where my ‘thinking out loud’ gets me into trouble.
But I mean for us to “noodle” in the best possible way. While enjoying the practical benefits of journaling, we gain all the more by recording this intentional quest for wisdom. To the point Piper made about “living for the glory Christ”, it is a quest worthy of capturing and remembering.
EXECUTE | Journaling for wisdom
While journaling will aid in our clarity, planning, and achieving, I want us to focus on how this method or process can be leveraged specifically for becoming wiser. You might think of it as creating your very own handbook on what you need to see, understand, and apply to your own life as it relates to God’s will for you. This is a little like our being Solomon asking God for wisdom, but in this case, we are leveraging its application and effectiveness by writing it out. So, as we noodle deeply, consider these points for making it as fruitful as possible.
Keeping a diary vs. journalling for wisdom
I want to first clarify that we’re not talking about keeping a log of what happens to us day-to-day. Journaling is a means of capturing and wresting your thoughts; recorded history serves another purpose. As we listen and read and ponder, we want to ask questions that will lead us to a “right understanding, rightly applied” (which is a fair description of biblical wisdom):
- What did I observe God revealing to me (about me or Himself)?
- How should I interpret or understand it?
- In what ways should it be applied in my life?
This allows us to “show our work”, as our math teachers were fond of saying, of probing and pondering and being decisive in thoughts and practice. Standing firmly on God’s Word, journaling becomes a confirmation of God at work in our minds and lives.
Write to release
As I referred to earlier, journaling can be very freeing and therapeutic. Even a necessary part of the process of allowing us to identify and then letting go of any offending thought or behavior. We are eventually no longer bound by negative thinking and believing. But it can also help us wrestle free from unnecessary boundaries we place on our thinking, opening us up to asking “what if?”
“The act of taking a business idea and fleshing it out on paper not only makes it tangible and real, but it also allows for growth and expansion of that idea.”
Simon Slade, co-founder of SaleHoo
Another way to look at writing as a release is with the intention of building on, or more deeply considering, a line of thinking. As Joshua Becker, writing at Becoming Minimalist says, we get to “think beyond the obvious”. Instead of losing out on the benefit of further developing what otherwise might be a passing thought, we can follow a thought or a course of action all the way until it dead-ends or leads us to a breakthrough.
Test the idea
Web developers use was it called a “sandbox” that enables them to create and run code in a testing environment that is isolated from a live environment. For us, we can try and fail (in our minds) without breaking anything–or hurting anyone.
The process of thoroughly examining a business dream, and then identifying how and why that dream will fail, is an invaluable exercise — one that is often only achieved through journaling.
Simon Slade, co-founder of SaleHoo
Journaling is a place for you to scrutinize your thinking to the point it is ready to “go live.” You have the right understanding of what is it you’re supposed to do, and you’re ready to trust God to rightly apply it.
From the “what” comes the “why?”
Up to this point, we’ve largely focused on the “what”: What we need to know, what we should do or not do. But capturing the “what”–those nuggets of wisdom–can also lead us to a better understanding of the “why.” We begin to see a pattern, whether right or wrong, that can help underscore the reason(s) why we’re in the place or position that we’re in and affirm how God has equipped and called us to engage it. Knowing the “why” will anchor us against the opposition we can expect from doing what God wants, God’s way.
This is How You Do it
This is where we formalize our thinking. Having thought through, forward and backward, what it is God has revealed and how we’re to apply it to our lives, we can crystalize our thoughts and planning. This again highlights the idea of creating a ‘wisdom handbook.’
Living in a solution mode means that you consistently reverse-engineer your successes. It is human nature to marshal change efforts only when there are problems… [but] solution-focused thinking, suggests that the path of our growth lies in understanding what we do well.
Brett Steenbarger, Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at SUNY Upstate Medical University
I think that Brett highlights two very important points. While his application has more to do with our professional lives, holding the idea of ‘this is how you do it’ does require us to look at what is right and good–the end–and trace our way back from that to where we are currently. In other words, we build intentionally toward what it is God wants us to do and who we should be. Brett also prescribes a ‘solution-focused’ mindset. We do want to take what is right and keep doing it effectively. This mindset takes into consideration both how God has gifted us and how He desires us to apply it.
Organize and (hopefully) never forget
When we think of this becoming a ‘wisdom handbook’, to the degree it is beneficial to you, you’ll want to index and organize what you’ve captured to effectively integrate it into your life. I really don’t like to complicate things, so what I found reasonable and helpful is to grab a notebook or journal and apply a flag and category system. Post-It makes reusable flags that you can use to create tabs for your notebook or journal, and you could simply create two categories: your thinking and your application. There might be pages created as you work through observing what God is revealing and how you should understand it, but then a more streamlined, even bulleted list, on how you will apply it. This second section provides you quick access to what you may need at a moment’s notice.
We can too easily lose sight of the clarity and confirmation God provides, which is why journaling is a crucial part of the true quest for wisdom. Marking progress of healthy introspection, wrestling with our thoughts, all in the presence of God and under the scrutiny of the light of His Word shining into the corners of our minds hearts, and shining forward to lead us into wisdom in all things.
Further reading:
Why does John Piper journal?
How journaling is important to success
Two powerful reasons to keep a journal
Benefits of journaling
Reasons to journal
Journalling (daily stoic)
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash