In 1656, English Puritan John Beadle published a book on keeping a journal as a spiritual discipline: The Journal or Diary of a Thankful Christian. To his knowledge and mine, his book was the first on the topic.
Ever since, I suppose, Christians have fallen into two camps: Those who like to write in journals and those who don’t. When I teach on prayer this is always a pretty clear division — with the non-journalers often seeming to feel a tad guilty about not liking the practice.
As I write in my chapter in Kneeling with Giants on ways the Puritans used writing for meditation and prayer, Beadle’s title points to one thing that can make learning to pray with a journal worthwhile: it can fill you up with thankfulness.
I don’t know what you like to do with your journal, or if you write in one regularly or even occasionally, but Beadle has some great suggestions. I’ll post on a few in the future, but today just a quick note on how he thought Scripture supported him in teaching the process.
His subtitle was that the book was “Presented in some Meditations on Numb. 33.2”
That text is
“Moses wrote down their starting points, stage by stage, by command of the Lord; and these are their stages according to their starting places.”
The whole chapter is just a list of place names recording the wilderness wanderings of the Israelites after the Exodus. It seems a random itinerary. But God commanded Moses to write them all down, recording them for future generations — even making them part of God’s Word to us.
For a whole lot of Israelites, those were some pretty miserable years in that desert. But in fact, God was with them. They needed to remember each and every place and take note that they were under God’s good care, provided for and guided with a loving hand.
Have you ever thought about recording your own comings and goings — year in, year out — as a record of where God was with you? Make that change of perspective and you might find yourself giving thanks.
Then after his title page, Beadle includes a picture of a kind of standing stone inscribed “1 Sam. 7.12” Here’s that text:
“Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Jeshanah, and named it Ebenezer; for he said, ‘Thus far the Lord has helped us.’”
Now you know what that old hymn “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” means when it says
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come
That is what a journal is for: we mark where we’ve come in the journey of faith and discipleship. If we got to where we are today, we got here by God’s power, with his grace and guidance.
Do that for a day, or a month, or a year, and you will realize you have a whole lot to be grateful for. Then you can turn to the next page and write out a prayer of thankfulness.
What do you use your journal for?
Or what holds you back from trying out the spiritual discipline of journal keeping?
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What a beautiful way to think of our life’s journey. Thank you.
Thank you, Lisa! Thanks for the affirming words.
article is quite interesting and hopefully true happiness rays began to warm the hearts of us all, when we can share it with sincerity. Greetings from Gede Prama 🙂 🙂
Thank you Gede! Glad you stopped by.
Blessings,
Gary
The Puritans were concerned about their spiritual relationship with God; thus, the journals. They were to be used as a way of reflection just as you write. Their focus was always on the inner man, rather than outward appearance of hair and apparel. Enjoyed this post. The thought of journaling has entered my mind, but I have a difficult time remaining consistent. Enjoyed this post.
Thanks for stopping by, Shelley! And thanks for liking my FB page. Hope you’ll subscribe here on the blog — FB only shows my blog posts to about 10%.
Sounds like you are a fan of the Puritans. I’d love to hear how you came to connect with them.
Believe it or not, I learned about them when I taught British Lit. I found it very interesting how the north and the south differed in their religious view. Southerners were more concerned with gentile manners and outward proprieties; hence, their social graces and hospitable manner. They were more open to theatre, entertainment, and the finer things.
Thank you for this post, Gary. As is your penchant, you’ve helped me to see something that I considered to be an incidental benefit (journaling) to be an essential benefit. I’ve never felt guilty about not journaling. I simply considered it something for people with nothing else to do. hmmmm. Now I have to decide… paper journal vs. digital journal; moleskin vs. leather cover; tweet-type (140 characters or less) several times a day vs end of the day summation. You’ve opened a whole new world. Cheers!
Thanks Donald — that means a lot.
My recommendation: don’t fuss about looking for the perfect form. Start with whatever is handy in terms of notebook or computer and if it doesn’t work out you’ll get a sense of what would be better. Or ponder for about five seconds whether writing with a pen or a keyboard gets your heart’s words flowing most easily.
Blessings!
Re: Ebemezer – when we were serving @ a church with a ministry for the hearing impaired, I ask the interpreter one day what she signed for this grade? She smiled and said “I don’t”. She signed the word “now I praise you Heavenly Father, it is by your grace I’ve come. Seed true to the verse and concept. Re journal I will give separate reply.
Sorry for typos. Can’t find edit today
Cool story Susan! Never worry about typos — half the time autocorrect tricks people into them, and the other half does’t matter.
True
My journaling used to be in crisis mode only. I wrote using just pad of paper, letter to myself style, poured out my heart (really to God) tucked into a private spot, never shared. Defined crisis as extraordinarily good or bad. First letter HS graduation, 2nd night before my wedding (my fears) 3rd when 1st baby died, more as each successive pregnancy failed, another at each new job or new church. Usually expressing grief at leaving one church (to gain some closure) and express gratitude for God’s faithfulness. Every 10 years or so I would take out and read. It gave me some hope that I was growing up, growing in spiritual maturity as they read more like Psalms over time. However, was still sporadic at best. Then 3 years ago, I prayed God would give me 1. A hunger for His word, 2. A way to know if I was spiritually growing up, 3. Some way to learn to like journaling. No surprise, God quickly took up that gauntlet. I found a tiny elastic bound notebook to be best for me. Pages are no larger than 3×5. Not intimidating. Faux leather bound for durability. Small enough to drop in pocket or purse. He answered also by giving me a “study drive” to scour the Word for all scriptures relating to the mind. First vs was “taking every thought captive” 2 Cor 10:5, quickly followed by Roms 12:2, and Phil4:8 & 9…etc. I just noted each verse on topic that spoke to me. Then I felt led to write affirmations to replace negative thoughts w positive ones, then Bible study notes, then reflections on what had been read. Now I write a bit almost every day. I don’t obsess over if I do or not. But I look back over only 3 years, I realize God has moved me from sitting to crawling, to standing by furniture to toddling. I hope and pray he continues to help me walk steadily toward Christ.