Mindy's Blog


 

Writing For Your Soul's Future 

By Mindy Caliguire - Thursday, June 04, 2009

Journals can be written for all sorts of things... prayer journals, scripture reading journals, gratitude journals, even pregnancy journals or travel journals. They all may be valuable, but what we've been focusing on in the midweek class at Willow Creek these last three weeks is how to write a Soul Care Journal. A place to write for your SOUL. To intentionally pursue authentic connection with God, with the sure hope of soul restoration and transformation. Of course, a soul care journal will likely include prayer, scripture, gratitude, and reflections on one's life. But most importantly, it will be a place to be honest with God about what's currently going on in our lives--in writing.

It's not about being eloquent, or creative, or pithy. It's not about alliteration or sentence structure or vocabulary. It's a place for the very real you to connect with a very real God. (you can listen to the entire series online here (last night's part three will be posted Fri June 5 after noon).

One of the other great values of a journal is that it can be a place to imagine and dream about the future. Far from self-absorption, a journal helps us walk the path of becoming who God intends for us to become--to accomplish the work he has in mind for us, or our calling. (Psalm 138, Eph 2)

Many spiritual directors advise directees to notice their desires, to "own" them, and to bring them to God. Yet often we are quite nervous about  our desires, well aware of those petty or even selfish ones that tend to lurk on the surface. What do I want? A Pottery Barn kitchen! New landscaping! A dog that doesn't eat furniture! While they may be surface desires, they are still important for us to name. But deeper, we have desires that have actually been placed there by God. Restored relationships. A sense of purpose. Freedom from an addiction. It is important for us to know them, "own" all of them and bring them to God (even the petty ones) not with a sense of entitlement but rather with a sense of honesty and surrender. Owning those dreams and visions... what we really want... can be essential to unlocking the redemptive story of our future.

"A primary reason most people don't get what they want is they don't know what they want. They haven't defined their dream in clear and compelling detail." (p 30, John Maxwell's Put your Dream to the Test)

One of the best books I've read on the topic of unlocking the future through a deep understanding of the past is Dan Allender's To Be Told (2005). Two of my favorite quotes (that are short enough for this space :))

"If I live my life for me alone, then my story is as dull as my self absorption"

"The more we take responsibility to write our present to honor the past, the greater number of stories there will be in the future that are lived for his glory."

I hope you'll take some time today to be honest with God about what's current in your life--in writing. Be honest about struggles, about your joy, about your hopes and fears and dreams. Write for your soul.

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