The Crazy Art of Writing Things Down

The Crazy Art of Writing Things Down

Me

Me

Bad Habits

Bad Habits

My brother and bottling farts.

Bed

Tucking yourself tightly under the covers so things can’t get you.

Wash hands

Water

3. Liking things that are universally loved, but pretending it’s a unique side of you. “Oh my god I love Audrey Hepburn. If I could be anyone it would be her. So sophisticated and classic.”

4. Thinking of a great comeback about four hours too late.

5. Using the “view as” button on Facebook with the sole purpose of seeing how our profile looks to our crush

6. Stripping down to your underwear almost immediately upon getting home. Door closes. Bam! Naked!

Cupping water in your hands from the shower then dumping it all out like a giant waterfall.

7. Claiming to read an entire book when really you just started it, got bored, then watched the movie instead or just browsed the Wiki page. “Yeah of course I’ve read Ulysses and War and Peace.”

8. Remembering something funny from like two years ago and then laughing hysterically. Then, when you’re trying to make yourself stop laughing, you just end up laughing more.

9. Turning the sound down in your car when it’s dark out and you’re looking for a house — as if that’ll somehow improve your vision.

Wednesday

Saying “Wed-nes-day” phonetically to help you spell it

11. Going to a coffee shop to work but ending up just people watching.

Stairs

13. Listening to a song over and over again until you get sick of it even though you know this will happen

Skipping the bottom two stairs (or running up the stairs on all fours at home).

14. Having a strict dressing order you thoughtlessly adhere to — underwear, pants, shirt, socks, jacket…

Yawn

16. Patting down your pocket to check for your wallet and keys even if you literally just put them in.

Faking a yawn or pretending there’s an urgent text to attend to when there’s even a brief bit of awkward silence

Pets

Talking to your pets like they’re little people. “Who’s a good little guy? Is it you? Is it you? Yes it is! What a good little boy!”

Laughing

Laughing at serious moment

Laziness

My own:

Good Habits

Good Habits

Make It Obvious / Make It Attractive / Make It Easy / Make It Satisfying

Set a specific time and place. Or tie the new habit to an old habit.

Make It Attractive

Make It Attractive

Bundle fun stuff with new habits.

Make It Easy

Make It Easy

Start with flossing just one tooth.

Make It Satisfying

Make It Satisfying

Reward yourself after you finish.

Make It Obvious

Set a specific time and place. Or tie the new habit to an old habit.

Make It Attractive

Bundle fun stuff with new habits.

Make It Easy

Start with flossing just one tooth.

Make It Satisfying

Reward yourself after you finish.

We

We

Journaling

There is no bad way to do it.

There is no bad way to do it.

You cannot fail at journaling. It can look like this (Image of knight)

Cousin who draws pictures for journaling (Music graphic)

You don’t have to do it.

It won’t make you look better in the eyes of God, he already delights in you.

So why would we journal?

I’ve been journaling since I was 17. I hadn’t even started to take God seriously in my life but I found writing my thoughts down had some benefits to living life well.

When I began to pursue Jesus in relationship journaling helped my relationship with God in a few ways.

Why?

Deuteronomy 11:18 NIV

Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

Tefillin

How journaling works

To look back

No sooner had Gideon died than the Israelites again prostituted themselves to the Baals. They set up Baal-Berith as their god and did not remember the Lord their God, who had rescued them from the hands of all their enemies on every side.

Judges 8:34 NIV

and did not remember the Lord their God, who had rescued them from the hands of all their enemies on every side.

They forgot the God who saved them, who had done great things in Egypt,

They forgot the God who saved them, who had done great things in Egypt,

Psalm 106:21 NIV

They forgot the God who saved them, who had done great things in Egypt,

In journaling one can remember the mundane, recall the funny, and not forget the humbling, painful, formative events of life. Pete Hamill, in his introduction to Edward Robb Ellis’s diary, explains: “The diarist has one essential goal: to freeze time. . . . This day will never come again, but here, in this diary, I will have it forever.” Likewise, diarist Andi Ashworth reminds us that with a journal “we have a notebook in which to be a student of life.” It’s one thing to remember the general contours of life, but a whole other thing to remember with specificity the dialogue, the smells, the laughs, and the tears.

We do not want to be like Israel and “forget” the Lord and all he’s done (e.g., ; ; ). One of the beauties of corporate worship is coming together as God’s people to recite what God has done. D. A. Carson is right:

Believers who spend no time reviewing and pondering in their minds what God has done, whether they are alone and reading their Bibles or joining with other believers in corporate adoration, should not be surprised if they rarely sense that God is near.

Journaling is another means of “pondering what God has done,” of tangibly recording his unwarranted grace in my life. The words you write will either serve to spur you on toward greater faithfulness or will be a haunting reminder of an ungrateful life.

To look here

Matthew 6:25–33 NIV

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

In journaling one can remember the mundane, recall the funny, and not forget the humbling, painful, formative events of life. Pete Hamill, in his introduction to Edward Robb Ellis’s diary, explains: “The diarist has one essential goal: to freeze time. . . . This day will never come again, but here, in this diary, I will have it forever.” Likewise, diarist Andi Ashworth reminds us that with a journal “we have a notebook in which to be a student of life.” It’s one thing to remember the general contours of life, but a whole other thing to remember with specificity the dialogue, the smells, the laughs, and the tears.

(NIV)

(NIV)

Do Not Worry

6:25–33pp—

We do not want to be like Israel and “forget” the Lord and all he’s done (e.g., ; ; ). One of the beauties of corporate worship is coming together as God’s people to recite what God has done. D. A. Carson is right:

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

We do not want to be like Israel and “forget” the Lord and all he’s done (e.g., ; ; ). One of the beauties of corporate worship is coming together as God’s people to recite what God has done. D. A. Carson is right:

Believers who spend no time reviewing and pondering in their minds what God has done, whether they are alone and reading their Bibles or joining with other believers in corporate adoration, should not be surprised if they rarely sense that God is near.

Journaling is another means of “pondering what God has done,” of tangibly recording his unwarranted grace in my life. The words you write will either serve to spur you on toward greater faithfulness or will be a haunting reminder of an ungrateful life.

To look forward

2 Corinthians 4:16–18 NIV

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

(NIV)

How journaling looks

(NIV)

16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

You

How journaling looks

Read

a passage of Scripture

Reflect

what is it saying then and now

Write

Journal what God is speaking to you

S.O.A.P.

My brothers and sisters! Feel good inside every time you go through a hard time for doing what God wants you to do. Because you know, after you go through that real hard time, and still trust God, then that will make you hang in there even better. When you hang in there all the way, that is going to make you grow up and become stronger inside, just like you are supposed to do, and so that you won’t need anything else.

If you one of you doesn’t know what to do, ask God for wisdom and he will give you the smarts you need. He isn’t going to give you a hard time. He is going to help you. God gives plenty of wisdom to everybody, you know. But when you ask him for wisdom, you need to trust him for it. Don’t ask and not trust. The person who doesn’t trust is just like a wave on the ocean that the wind blows all over the place. They act like they have two brains. They can’t make up their minds when they think about things. That person better not think they will get something for God, because they won’t.

If you one of you doesn’t know what to do, ask God for wisdom and he will give you the smarts you need. He isn’t going to give you a hard time. He is going to help you. God gives plenty of wisdom to everybody, you know. But when you ask him for wisdom, you need to trust him for it. Don’t ask and not trust. The person who doesn’t trust is just like a wave on the ocean that the wind blows all over the place. They act like they have two brains. They can’t make up their minds when they think about things. That person better not think they will get something for God, because they won’t.

Remember

God delights in you whether you journal or not!

Journaling can help you delight in God!