I try to be an open book. I love authenticity in others through stories from life. Real life. Not Pinterest life, which is fun, but the unscripted connections we make sharing the ins and outs of our days. So, I’m letting you inside today, literally, of a fairly new habit I started September 2014 by browsing through the Heartland bookstore.
I swear this journal chose me. One touch of its textured fabric cover and I knew we were meant to spend Sunday mornings together. I plopped in a lobby couch and dug through my purse for a pen. No pen. Not one. Any given day I could find a handful of pens, but not today. Ok, God, what are you trying to tell me? Without thinking too much I got on my feet and borrowed a pen from the welcome center. Maybe it seems strange that this seemingly insignificant moment has stuck with me over a year, but I found a simple message in it to be humble and ask for help when I don’t have what I need. With that borrowed pen in hand, the words flowed. My sermon journal had begun.
Church has become a scavenger hunt of the words I need most or words I may need later. The journal is a woven treasure map I can reread, reflect with, and sometimes use as a calming coloring book. Inspirational doodling. It’s changed the way I listen in church and in life. I am on a hunt for words and phrases that stick and move me forward. Power in a pen. Sermon journaling has helped me listen…really listen to Jesus like the friend I consider Him to be.
Sermon journal is something you can’t mess up as long as you resist the urge to write down your shopping list. There’s no format. There’s no structure. Just you and Him…and the amazing pastor who’s speaking that week. Write down the thoughts swirling in your brain, the song lyrics that echo in your mind from our talented band, names for prayer, or prayers themselves. Ask questions, make comments, react, wonder, think, pause, and reflect. Then revisit each page from time to time.
I love to write, so it makes perfect sense for me to love and learn about Jesus through a gift He gave me. And, by gift, I am not claiming to be good at it…but it brings out the good in me. Writing may not be your thing, but something is. What gift have you been given that brings out the good in you? Whatever it is, invite Him to do it with you.
~ Shelisa Welde
