Spiritual Journaling PUMA Class 2013 Bob Shank. 1.What is a Spiritual Journal? 2.Why Keep a Spiritual Journal? 3.Getting Started! Session 1

Spiritual Journaling

PUMA Class2013

Bob Shank

1. What is a Spiritual Journal?

2. Why Keep a Spiritual Journal?

3. Getting Started!

Session 1

The Daily Record

Session 2

Tonight’s Agenda

1. Maintaining Momentum

2. The Journal & Your Personal

Goals

Session 3

Maintaining Momentum

“The purpose of this chapter is to help you gain momentum so that journal-writing becomes a firmly established habit.”


1. Your way of keeping a journal is the right way

“There are no rules for keeping a journal.”

“It is natural to wonder, ‘Am I doing this correctly?’ ‘Is this the way a journal is supposed to sound?’ Is this good writing?’”



“If you make journal-writing a painstaking exercise in perfection, you will not keep it up for long.”

“One friend tells how he overcame his fear of keeping a journal…”



“From high-school days on I had always wanted to keep a journal but thought it was unmanly, so I didn’t. But when I went to college, a star athlete (lettered in several sports) shared with me the journal that he’d kept since tenth grade. That was enough for me. I bought a journal the next day and have kept one ever since.”


2. Be honest

“Write about how you really feel and now how you think you should feel. Record what you really think, not what you believe you ought to think.”


2. Be honest

“We can think of the Psalms as a form of journal-writing—an honest-to-God reflection on critical situations in a believer’s life.”

“How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? “ Psalm 13:1

“My God, my God, why have your forsaken me?” Psalm 22:1


2. Be honest

“So in your journal—if nowhere else—feel free to follow the example of the psalm writers and Job. Be honest with God. Wrestle with God, like Jacob did, until you are blessed.”


3. Get at the feeling level

“You can play it safe in your journal and stay at the level of outward events, restricting yourself to the facts of what happened. However, you get more benefit from journal-writing if you include your feelings about what happened.”



“Our feelings can be symptoms, clues that something is wrong and needs to be reordered in our lives. Just as physical pain is a sign that something is wrong with our bodies, emotional pain can be a sign of something wrong in our spiritual-psychological systems.”



“So if you find yourself feeling fearful or anxious or depressed, explore that feeling in your journal. Express it in words. Write how you feel. Ask God to help you understand why you feel that way and what you can do about it.”



“When we write about our feelings in a journal, we are doing two things:1. We diffuse the feelings by expressing

them in a harmless way2. We can begin to see them objectively

and perhaps discern their causes and their solutions.”


4. Experiment with your journal

“Try different sizes, lined or unlined, a fancy or plain journal. It can make a difference in how you feel about writing in your journal.”

“Experiment also with the time at which you write. Try morning or evening. Or try writing on and off through the day. See what feels best.”


4. Experiment with your journal

“Experiment with the place where you write. Maybe you will feel more free to write outdoors, or at a library, or on the front steps.”

“Make your journal what you want it to be. Others can give advice, but follow your own instincts in what you want.”


5. Don’t take your journal too seriously

“Journal-writing should never become a grim chore. If you see it that way, you probably will not do it for long. Remember that writing in your journal is not a task you must perform perfectly. Go at it in the spirit of creative play.”


5. Don’t take your journal too seriously

“Think of your journal as a loyal friend. Let your journal-writing time be a sabbath time for you, an enjoyable, quiet time, even a gift you give yourself. Think of the solitude connected with the journal as part of the abundant life God wants you to have.”

“So relax with your journal, and enjoy it!”

The Journal & Your Personal Goals

“Goals are important. If we know where we’re headed, we live our lives with direction and meaning. Our energies are harnessed in the direction God has called us.”

“Without goals we drift aimlessly.”


“God does not want us to be abject failures or miserable drifters. He wants to give our lives meaning and purpose. This can happen when we ask God to reveal direction for our lives, and when in faith we begin to move toward those goals.”


“For me, the most natural place to do my goal-setting is in my journal. Here I can not only work out my goals, but I can keep them before me and record my purpose.”


1. Step One: Clarifying Major Life Purposes

To begin formulating your goals, set aside an hour or more to think about your values, about what is most important to you. For example, how important to you are the following items?

• Having a good marriage & family life• Owing a beautiful home• Doing satisfying work



• Being able to travel widely• Being physically fit• Making a substantial salary• Growing spiriutally• Working for peace & justice in the world



“Questions like these may help you clarify what is important to you.”

“Questions like these can get us off the treadmill of unquestioning activity & give us some perspective as to what is most important to us.”



“In your journal make a list of your major life purposes. Perhaps it would help you to think in terms of certain categories.”

Spiritual IntellectualWork PhsycialSocial FinancialFamily



“When you have completed your list, reread it with these questions in mind:

• Do these purposes glorify God?• Do they help others?• Can each of these life purposes come

under the lordship of Christ?• Are they consistent with the will of God as

revealed in the Bible?



“Don’t feel that this has to be a once-for-all permanent list. As time goes on and your sense of what God wants you to do with your life is clarified, you can add items, change some, and delete others.”



“These life purpose statements are important because they set the general direction of our lives. They can help us judge whether our activities are really fulfilling these purposes. When we become confused or discouraged, we can return to these statements to remind ourselves of the purposes we have chosen before God.”


1. Step Two: Setting Goals

“For each of your life purpose statements you should ask: What are some specific goals that will help me move toward the fulfillment of this purpose?.”

“Make a list of goals for each of your major life purposes.”


Principles of Goal-Setting

Goals should be realistic.


Your Journal and Your Goals

“I work out my yearly goals in my journal, sometimes ending up with a marked-up, scratched-out page. Then I record these goals at the beginning of a journal volume for ready reference. I leave several pages for monthly and weekly goals.”



“To keep myself on track, at the beginning of each week I read over my list of yearly & monthly goals & then chose goals for the week. I break these down into daily goals. Life being as uncertain as it is, I often adjust these goals as the week progresses—postponing some, abandoning others, & (rarely) adding some urgent items.”



“Having this written list of short-term goals prevents me from being overwhelmed by work, because it is broken down into small, manageable segments.”

Documents

Spiritual Journaling PUMA Class 2013 Bob Shank. 1.What is a Spiritual Journal? 2.Why Keep a Spiritual Journal? 3.Getting Started! Session 1