Have you ever found yourself thinking a thought and saying to yourself “How did I get here?”  It might have been a moment when you were thinking about what you would eat for dinner tonight and find  that you end up thinking about a presentation someone made in a recent meeting.  If you take the time to “connect the dots” you may be able to go from thought “A” to “B” to “C” and see beginning to end.  Some might call these random thoughts “stream of consciousness” or an interior monologue.  It depicts the multitudinous thoughts and feelings that flood our inner selves moment by moment.  Stream of consciousness can become wearisome especially during our quiet time with God.  We want to meditate on scripture and end up constructing grocery lists in our heads!

“…writing channels our attention so that we can see more clearly the mystery of God’s directing will in our daily events.”

This is why the spiritual discipline of journaling can be useful to our time with the Lord.  Susan Annette Muto in her book “Pathways of Spiritual Living” underscores the value of journaling with this thought:

“Writing stops the flow of experience so that we can look at it again and gain insight into what was really occurring in this meeting or in this presence of such a text or during our pause for prayer and presence to the transcendent.  Journaling in this regard could be compared to the construction of a dam on a river.  The dam stops the rush of water for the sake of rechanneling it for higher yields of power.  Similarly, writing channels our attention so that we can see more clearly the mystery of God’s directing will in our daily events.”

So. . .the next time you sit down to spend time with the Lord. . . bring pen and paper!